A Politically Split Congress Can Perhaps Fuel Federal Surveillance Reforms

The National Security Agency (NSA) is urging Congress to renew its secret surveillance authorities before they expire at the end of the year. Split control of Congress provides an excellent opportunity for lawmakers to take the time to reform these laws so that American citizens have stronger protections from unwarranted snooping that's supposed to only be used to track foreign spies and terrorists.

On Thursday, NSA Director and Army Gen. Paul Nakasone spoke at a virtual panel discussion presented by the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to urge the renewal of "one of the U.S. government's most important intelligence authorities." He's referring to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). FISA authorizes the NSA to engage in secret surveillance to keep track of potential foreign threats, overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which is supposed to make sure that Americans' Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless snooping are honored...