The Senate voted Tuesday to limit debate and advance a bill renewing a controversial National Security Agency (NSA) warrantless surveillance program for another six years.
The procedural vote passed by a slim margin of 60 to 38, receiving votes across party lines to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The legislation offers minimal changes to the intelligence community’s (IC) program to collect communications on foreign suspects outside of the U.S, despite lengthy debate about loopholes in the authority that allow FBI and NSA officials to collect domestic surveillance on Americans.
Both the chair and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), urged their colleagues to support the bill viewed by the Department of Justice and IC as an important tool for thwarting national security threats.
“Let me be clear: this (Section 702 of FISA) has been tested in the courts and the courts have ruled that this program is lawful and constitutional. So any claim outside of that is not a claim from the judiciary, which we trust — it is a claim from an individual — and I believe in this case that we should trust the courts. Let me say here that Congress recognized the constitutionality of Section 702 when it reauthorized the bill in 2012,” said Burr during his remarks on the Senate floor prior to the cloture vote. “702 is the single most important national security tool that we have in the United States.”
Eighteen Democrats, plus independent Senator Angus King (I-Maine), voted yes to supporting 702 reauthorization. They included Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.).
Six Republicans joined the majority of Senate Democrats in opposing legislation, including. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
A bipartisan group of five Senators held a press conference Wednesday urging their colleagues to address the privacy concerns in the bill before advancing the reauthorization legislation. The group supported a separate bill with more sweeping reforms, the USA Rights Act, which was shut down after the cloture vote.
“A bill of this importance ought to be open to a real Senate debate, not blast through the Senate on the most extreme procedure with no amendments, no discussion, our way or the highway,” said. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), during the press conference.
That bill would have required the FBI to receive a warrant before accessing American’s communications collected under 702.
“I think most of us agree the program has value and is useful, but we should not use the information that is collected without Constitutional protections for Americans,” said Paul. “At the very least there ought to be a warrant to search an American in the database.”
The Senate is expected to conduct a final vote on the bill Thursday or Friday.