Biden Signs Foreign Surveillance Act After Trump’s Opposition

President Joe Biden signed a bill Saturday extending and modifying the Foreign Surveillance Act, ending a legislative saga that involved multiple failed efforts to advance the bill. Former President Donald Trump, who claimed it was used to spy on his campaign, had urged Congress to “kill” it.

Biden signed the bill, extending Section 702 of the FISA law for two years, hours after the Senate’s approval, which came shortly after the law expired late Friday. The law allows intelligence agencies to conduct targeted surveillance on non-U.S. citizens overseas using an FBI database without a warrant.

The House voted to renew FISA last week following multiple failed attempts, including an earlier version that would have reauthorized Section 702 for five years. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said FISA allows the U.S. to “retain essential authority” in understanding and protecting against a “wide range of dangerous threats to Americans” while protecting privacy and civil liberties.

Chief critic Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called for amendments to the legislation, saying lawmakers supporting the law “want no warrants, and they want nothing to protect the Americans.” Paul reportedly objected to a White House statement claiming the “situation could turn very bad and dangerous very quickly” if the law didn’t pass. “This is an argument that has been forced upon us by the supporters of FISA who want no debate and they want no restrictions,” Paul said.

Section 702 of FISA was authorized by Congress in 2008 to monitor noncitizens outside of the U.S., though it has faced criticism since its inception. A 2023 report from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court found the FBI misused the law’s tool nearly 300,000 times between 2020 and early 2021, including the collection of information on Jan. 6 rioters and Black Lives Matter protesters.

Earlier this month, Trump called on lawmakers to “kill” the legislation—which was briefly extended in December—and incorrectly said it was used to improperly spy on his campaign. The Justice Department previously determined the FBI improperly obtained two warrants to spy on a former aide to his campaign, though the warrants were obtained under a different section of FISA, Title I.