This is the Kator Daily Podcast for Thursday, November 16th,

2023. I'm Caleb Brown. Federal surveillance authorities that allow for

often suspicionless and certainly warrantless eavesdropping on Americans

are set to expire at the end of the year. This time though lawmakers are at least

considering some reforms before reauthorization. Cato's Patrick Eddington is skeptical.

James Chernowski of American's prosperity is somewhat less skeptical.

We spoke last week.

Gentlemen, do you know how I know it's late in the year?

It's late in the year because certain surveillance authorities are going to expire soon.

And now, rather than having a long deliberative process in the deliberative bodies in Congress,

we have the beginning, or at least the drumbeat of the mad rush

toward reauthorization of these surveillance authorities.

James if you don't mind, there are some lawmakers

who have taken issue with some of these surveillance authorities

that are largely not authorized by the Constitution, not largely reviewed by

Congress for the most part. So tell us what what did these lawmakers want to do?

What are the surveillance authorities at issue?

And what do you think about it?

Yeah, that's a great question. So what is at the heart of the expiration here at the end of the year

is what's called Section 702 underneath the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

This authority was passed back in 2008 as an extension of the powers that were being carried out

underneath the Bush administration.

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