The new Republican House majority faces a tough national security choice. One of the country’s most productive intelligence programs will expire at the end of 2023. Section 702 of FISA allows intelligence agencies to target foreign terrorists, spies, and others by intercepting communications that are passing through the United States. Thanks to this country’s central role in communications networks, it is hard for even determined enemies to keep their communications from touching our soil, and section 702 provides the authority we need to tap them. Because any new surveillance authority is controversial, section 702 contained a “sunset” clause when it was first adopted in 2008. The next sunset is scheduled for December 31, 2023.
Past renewal votes have been close calls. In 2018, the House renewed the authority only because 65 Democrats joined 191 Republicans in a “coalition of the center.” Today, that center is weaker on both sides of the aisle, but especially among GOP members who believe that national security authorities were used for partisan purposes in recent years.
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