The law governing the way intelligence officials gather information through wiretapping is nearly 30 years old and did not anticipate the kinds of technological advances that route foreign calls through the U.S.
So when terrorism suspects call each other from foreign countries, their conversations often travel across U.S. wires, preventing intelligence officers from listening in without a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Congress plans to fix that problem this week. Under intense pressure from Republicans, Democrats have added FISA to an already packed pre-recess agenda.
“I’m very hopeful,” House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., said when asked Tuesday about the prospects for addressing the problem this week. “We think it is very important.”
Republicans are taking credit, saying they drew attention to the FISA loophole when it appeared Democrats were going to ignore it. They continued to bring up the need to address FISAthis week during debate on other legislation on the House floor.
“There are conversations happening overseas that our intelligence agents are not being allowed to monitor,” Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., a former FBI agent, said during the debate on farm legislation. “We should not leave this chamber today, tomorrow, without fixing this critical national security problem.”
Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a chief negotiator on the FISA gap, said it would be fixed exactly as requested by Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, who wants the authority to conduct warrantless surveillance of suspected terrorists, even if they are calling from foreign countries.
“It will be a very targeted fix that would satisfy the issue McConnell has brought to our attention,” Reyes said.
Reyes criticized Republicans for taking the matter public after requests from McConnell that the fix be handled without openly discussing potential holes in intelligence caused by the antiquated law.
“That is certainly not what McConnell asked us to do,” Reyes said. “He asked us to work it quietly.”
Reyes said the House will take up a larger effort to modernize the FISA bill this fall. Republicans want to change the law so that the director of national intelligence has more surveillance authority and telecommunications companies are protected from liability after cooperating with intelligence officials.
“We need to ensure that the communications companies do have the ability to [cooperate] without fear of future liability,” Hoyer said, but added, “I don’t think we are going to deal with liability issues in the past.”
