Congress approved a six-week extension of a key surveillance program Thursday, just hours before it is set to lapse.
The extension will give lawmakers until June 12 to work out a deal on a long-term reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which targets foreigners abroad but can sweep in communications involving Americans.
The decision to do a short-term extension came after the House passed a three-year bill Wednesday but packaged it with a controversial digital currency provision that made it “dead on arrival,” according to Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson discussed the short-term extension during a closed-door meeting they had Wednesday, the Senate leader said Thursday.
The Senate approved the punt by a voice vote Thursday afternoon before the House passed it under fast-track procedures on a 261-111 vote.
As part of a deal Senate leaders cut with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to speed up the extension’s passage ahead of the midnight deadline, Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, will send a letter telling the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and the Justice Department to declassify an annual 702 court opinion within 15 days so it can be used as part of the negotiations.
The Senate has been working on its own three-year extension, which will include some overlap with the changes included in the House’s three-year bill. But supporters of the program argue that they need more time to iron out a final agreement.
“I think there’s already a pretty substantial dialog going on between Sens. Warner and Cotton and their counterparts in the House and the White House,” Thune said. “We’re interested in looking at some ways in which it can be reformed. … So we’re entertaining those ideas at the moment.”
Read the full article here