The push to reform a key surveillance law before it expires
Consider This from NPR
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🗓️ 11 June 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
It authorizes U.S. intelligence agencies to intercept the electronic communications of foreign nationals, outside the United States.
But foreign nationals also talk to Americans. And lawmakers in both parties have long protested that this collection of phone calls, text messages and emails allow government agencies to monitor the conversations of Americans without a judicial warrant.
And FISA 702 is on a path to expire after Friday.
Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice explains her proposal for reform.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's consider this where every day we go deep on one big news story. |
| 0:05.3 | Today, the controversial surveillance law that is due to expire after this week. |
| 0:10.9 | It has a complicated name, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, |
| 0:16.7 | but it is key to counterterrorism work. |
| 0:19.5 | It authorizes U.S. intelligence agencies to intercept |
| 0:22.9 | the electronic communications of foreign nationals outside the U.S. |
| 0:27.3 | Section 702 grew out of a secret warrantless surveillance program conducted by the Bush administration after 9-11. |
| 0:37.0 | That is Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. |
| 0:40.1 | But there's a fatal flaw at the core of Section 702. |
| 0:44.3 | This authority is also used for warrantless spying on innocent Americans. |
| 0:50.6 | Durbin's criticism, and by the way, it's shared by some Republicans as well, is that foreigners talk to Americans. |
| 0:58.3 | And that creates a potential loophole for government intelligence agencies to comb through that data and surveil the communications of U.S. citizens without a warrant. |
| 1:08.8 | The FBI has abused 702. And that's why we are here today. |
| 1:16.1 | Let's get 702 reauthorized with constitutional protections. |
| 1:21.2 | And that is Republican Congressman Keith Self of Texas. |
| 1:25.1 | Now, some in or close to the intelligence community say that requiring a |
| 1:29.7 | warrant to access Americans' data does not make sense in this case. Here's the late Stuart Baker, |
| 1:36.4 | who used to be General Counsel at the National Security Agency, testifying to Congress in January. |
| 1:41.6 | All of the things that we care about for intelligence purposes are also violations of our |
| 1:46.8 | criminal law by saying, oh, you need a separate warrant if you've got a separate interest in getting |
| 1:52.6 | access to information we already collected for intelligence purposes. |
| 1:56.6 | We shouldn't make that mistake with something as important as things like terrorism or espionage. |
... |
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