The Senate has voted to reauthorize Sec. 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It passed the House version of the bill, which lacked some privacy protections for U.S. resident's texts and e-mails and phone calls that some privacy groups had wanted.

The White House backed the bill, which will be headed to the President's desk for his signature.

FISA allows for the accessing of communications with foreign entities, but legislators from both parties had been looking to rein in warrantless searches of the communications of U.S. residents (when they are on the other end of those communications). It is just the latest attempt to address that issue.

The White House had opposed an amendment, which failed in both the House and Senate, that would have ended warrantless backdoor searches of Americans' calls, emails, texts and other communications.

As it was, the bill that passed House and Senate does require, for the first time according to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), that the government obtain a warrant to access data on U.S. persons in criminal investigations and will prevent the FBI from using information collected incidentally from such communications in criminal investigations. Goodlatte said the bill does have meaningful reforms, and he would have preferred more, but that the option was not between a perfect bill and letting the FISA section sunset.

The Open Technology Institute, representing computer companies and others pushing for stronger privacy protections, was not pleased.

“It’s shocking that at a time when our government is singling out communities for increased scrutiny based on their country of origin, faith, or race, the Senate would vote to expand Section 702 surveillance, and to empower the government to warrantlessly search through 702 data for Americans’ communications," said Robyn Greene, policy counsel and government affairs lead at New America’s Open Technology Institute.

“We need to strike a balance between liberty and security and not give the government unchecked surveillance power," said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Commerce Committe and a fan of the stronger protections for communications that did not make it onto the bill. "That’s why I opposed today’s surveillance legislation because it will allow the government to spy on American citizens.  We can and should provide for intelligence gathering against terrorism while still protecting Americans’ privacy.”

The Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday (Jan. 16) on S.139, the Senate version of the House bill reauthorizing key provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

In advance of that, privacy advocates were pledging to target Democrats who support the bill, and wanted their supporters to do so, literally.

Fight for the Future, which sees the bill as allowing "mass government spying" on the communications--phone calls, e-mails, texts--of U.S. citizens, planned to crowdfund billboards ahead of the midterm elections calling out Democratic senators if they vote to reauthorize.

As an example, they pointed to Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who they say opposed reinstating warrant protections, and circulated a mock-up of what the billboard could look like (see picture).

“The power to turn the Internet into a weapon for mass surveillance is too dangerous for any government to have, but it’s unthinkable in the hands of the Trump administration, which has clearly shown it will use these powers to target the most vulnerable people in our country,” said a representative of the group. “Any lawmaker who votes to reauthorize and expand these unconstitutional spying powers is standing on the wrong side of history while enabling totalitarianism and mass discrimination. Constituents deserve to know when their lawmakers are not fighting for their rights but, rather, obstructing them.”

The House last week voted to renew FISA provisions without an amendment that would have added protections for the private communications of U.S. citizens from government surveillance.

FISA allows for the accessing of communications with foreign entities, but legislators from both parties have been looking to rein in warrantless searches of the communications of U.S. residents (when they are on the other end of those communications). It is just the latest attempt to address that issue.

The White House had opposed the amendment, and supported the bill as passed.

The amendment that was defeated would have ended warrantless backdoor searches of Americans' calls, emails, texts and other communications.

The bill does require, for the first time according to Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), that the government obtain a warrant to access data on U.S. persons in criminal investigations and will prevent the FBI from using information collected incidentally from such communications in criminal investigations. Goodlatte said the bill does have meaningful reforms, and he would have preferred more, but that the option was not between a perfect bill and letting the FISA section sunset.

Also defeated was an amendment that would have prevented using a term related to a U.S. person in searches of FBI databases of communications of foreign entities obtained under FISA. Goodlatte said law enforcement should be able to perform such searches, which might have revealed whether someone was taking flying lessons without wanting to know how to land the plane.

The White House has come out against a proposed amendment to reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization that its backers say provides the necessary constitutional protections while giving intelligence authorities the ability to target terrorists and other overseas targets. The amendment is scheduled to be debated on the House floor Thursday (Jan. 11)

FISA allows for the accessing of communications with foreign entities, but legislators from both parties have been looking to rein in warrantless searches of the communications of U.S. residents (when they are on the other end of those communications). It is just the latest attempt to address that issue.

The USA Rights Act, co-sponsored by Reps. Ted Poe (R-Tex.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), is expected to be introduced as an amendment to the FISA bill.

Related: Wyden Seeks Info on E-Mail Info Collection

"The USA Rights Act reforms Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to end warrantless backdoor searches of Americans' calls, emails, texts and other communications that are routinely swept up under a program designed to spy on foreign targets," Poe said. "This sweeping authority has been clouded in secrecy, in part because the government refuses to answer essential questions about how it impacts Americans, including who can be targeted and how many American communications the government collects. Despite arguments to the contrary, the USA Rights Act allows the 702 program to continue to be used to target terrorists and agents of a foreign power without a warrant, it simply adds a clear warrant requirement when we search this data on U.S. Persons."

The White House sees it very differently, terrorism and national security, as it has in defending what its critics see as heavy-handed immigration policies.

"The Administration strongly opposes the 'USA Rights' amendment to the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act, which the House will consider tomorrow," the White House said in a statement late Wednesday. "This amendment would re-establish the walls between intelligence and law enforcement that our country knocked down following the attacks of 9/11 in order to increase information sharing and improve our national security. The Administration urges the House to reject this amendment and preserve the useful role FISA’s Section 702 authority plays in protecting American lives."

In November, House Judiciary Committee chair Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and ranking member John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced the USA Liberty Act, which partially closes the "backdoor" loophole through which Americans' communications--if they are on the other end of that conversation with non-U.S. resident--can be viewed without a warrant. Reps. Poe and Zoe Lofgren want to shut that door completely.

Congress has been trying for years to agree on the right balance of privacy protection and going after foreign threats to national security.

“We call on Congress to protect Americans’ 4th Amendment rights," said Computer & Communications Industry Association President Ed Black. "We oppose any renewal of FISA that fails to close the ‘backdoor search loophole,’ which permits the continued searching of Americans’ incidentally collected communications without a warrant based on probable cause. We urge members to support the USA RIGHTS Act Amendment or any amendment that would protect Americans’ communications from unreasonable, warrantless access.”   

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence, wants to know how many "backdoor" searches of e-mails and other communications the government has conducted.

He is concerned about warrantless searches the attorney general can authorize of information collected from or about U.S. citizens if it also involves a person from another country or agent of a foreign power.

He also wants to know if the intelligence community can conduct searches of that information without an individual warrant and what limits there are in searching the information if that person is not the target--the target has to be a foreign power or agent on the other side of that communication collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Wyden is also concerned about the lack of public awareness of the breadth of the data collection and limits on oversight, as well as what he says is the vagueness of government procedures for collection and use.

Wyden asked for the information in a letter to acting assistant attorney general for national security Dana Boente.

Two top Republican senators have asked for all the surveillance warrants the FBI requested from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court as part of the Bureau's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, including possible collusion with the campaign of Donald Trump.

In seeking the warrants, Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Crime and Terrorist Subcommittee chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have cited stories by the BBC, as well as CNN (which President Trump continues to brand as "fake news").

The two networks have reported that the Justice Department had asked the court for authority to monitor members of the Trump presidential campaign, but the court denied the request, advising the FBI to narrow its focus.

Grassley and Graham said, based on the reports, they want copies of both classified and non-classified requests.

Both Congress and the FBI are investigating Russia’s meddling in the presidential election and whether the Trump campaign colluded in that effort. The president has said any suggestion of that is fake news served up by media “enemies” in service of his Democratic opponents, who he says are trying to undermine his presidency.