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       lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
       
       
       ARTICLE VIEW: 
       
       Key surveillance tool could run out Friday as senators struggle to
       reach agreement to beat deadline
       
       By Ted Barrett, CNN
       
       Updated: 
       
       8:13 PM EDT, Mon April 15, 2024
       
       A critical intelligence community surveillance tool could lapse
       temporarily Friday unless senators reach an agreement to speed passage
       of a bill that would renew the program for two years.
       
       That cooperation would be needed from Senate critics who have myriad of
       complaints about Section 702 , notably that the government can get
       access without a warrant to data from foreigners including when they
       are interacting with Americans.
       
       Senate Republican Whip John Thune said if the Senate is going to meet
       its deadline, members of his conference will need to get, at a minimum,
       a vote on an amendment requiring warrants for any spying on Americans.�
       A similar amendment narrowly failed in the House last week .
       
       “We are going to have people who will want amendments, and so
       that’s what it’s going to take. I assume they’ll want to have the
       same vote they had in the (House) on search warrants,” he said.�
       “There is going to be a bit of a pile up, I think. But hopefully
       we’ll be able to transact FISA.”
       
       Without a time and amendment agreement, it could take the Senate until
       Sunday to process the bill, meaning a lapse in the programs would
       occur.
       
       One conservative senator with concerns over FISA was hopeful Democrats
       who control the chamber will cede to their demands and the bill will
       pass in time.
       
       “I would imagine we get amendments considering how important this
       is,” said Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who said most of the
       Republicans he’s talked to would be satisfied if they got votes on
       amendments.
       
       “They don’t want this to run out,” he said referencing pressure
       on Democrats to make a deal.
       
       A top Democratic senator, Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, told
       reporters Monday that he believes the intelligence community could
       continue eavesdropping for a year or more even after the program
       lapses.
       
       “My staff tells me there are provisions for that possibility, that
       they can continue applying FISA, I think, for a year or even longer,”
       he said.”
       
       But that was sharply disputed by top Republicans.
       
       “That’s not true,” said Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who
       is on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “I know there is a legal
       theory that because the Foreign Surveillance Court certified the
       program for a year that somehow, maybe, we can continue to use those
       tools. But I don’t believe that’s true. I think that
       certification was in expectation that the authorization would
       resume.”
       
       Cornyn added that it’s very important the authority is not
       interrupted: “60% of the president’s daily brief is composed of
       702 derived material, so this is absolutely critical.”
       
       Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, agreed.
       
       “I think that if it’s not authorized, you have to be very careful
       with it. As sympathetic as I may be to that concept, they better follow
       the law,” he said. “That was an unproductive comment by Sen.
       Durbin, probably out of frustration. But that is not what we want to
       be doing.”
       
       One Democratic aide involved in the issue said when there was a
       previous lapse in Section 702 authority, providers like Google and AT&T
       stopped giving material to the government, so that would be at risk
       now.
       
       Republican senators who are demanding FISA amendment votes are some of
       the same group that is frustrated that Democrats are poised to
       short-circuit the impeachment trial of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
       when it hits the floor Tuesday and Wednesday. Republican Sen. Mike Lee
       of Utah is venting that frustration, in part, by forcing the Senate to
       take time-consuming procedural votes on motions that are typically
       approved by unanimous consent.
       
       Durbin was asked if he was concerned Lee’s moves could cause FISA to
       lapse.
       
       “I’m always concerned with Mike Lee,” he said.
       
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