(FreedomBeacon.com)- Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which permits intelligence and federal law enforcement to collect the communications of targeted individuals is set to expire at the end of the year unless it is reauthorized by Congress. But many lawmakers think it is time for the measure to either be reformed or scrapped entirely.
In a statement to Breitbart News, a spokesperson for Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines said the senator wants “significant reform” to Section 702 given how the provision has allowed the FISA Court to infringe on the rights of law-abiding American citizens.
In an interview on Fox News last fall, Republican Congressman Jim Jordan said he doesn’t think Congress should reauthorize the measure when it expires in December, the New York Times reported.
House Intelligence Committee Republican Darin LaHood said reforming Section 702 is part of the negotiations between the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees.
But it isn’t only Republican lawmakers who want to see reforms to the measure.
Washington Democrat Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has said “meaningful reforms” have to be included in any reauthorization of Section 702.
A routine audit of Section 702 by the Justice Department and the Office of the National Director of Intelligence found that the FBI often took political affiliation into account when doing search queries of the FISA database to find links to foreign intelligence, including one FBI agent who had searched the name of a member of Congress without including necessary “limiters.”
Last month, Arizona Republican Congressman Andy Biggs said the audit revealed that the FBI was misusing its “privileged spying powers” as a way to “conduct rogue surveillance on innocent Americans.”
In January, Biggs reintroduced the Fourth Amendment Restoration Act which would repeal FISA and prevent warrantless surveillance of Americans. The legislation would also hold accountable any federal official that violates the law.
