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Several provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act were due to expire last December and Congress, in it’s typical wisdom, could not come to an agreement regarding renewing them, so they kicked the can down the road three months.
That three months expires this weekend and Congress has not figured out the answer.
The provisions which will expire on the 15th if Congress does not act are:
1. Roving wiretaps which allow the feds to get one warrant to cover the situation where bad guys use burner phones and keep changing them.
2. Lone wolf provisions which allow the feds to go after so called “lone wolf” terrorists who are not, at least obviously, part of a larger terrorist organization and
3. Collection of company’s so called “business records”, which is the very famous cell phone call detail records which has been a pain in the rear for the NSA and apparently, not very valuable. The feds have spent something like $100 million on the program and it has generated two leads, one of which did not pan out.
The NSA said that it did not want the business records provision renewed, the White House said that it wanted it.
The Senate has not been involved in these House negotiations, but their choice is to push back and let the law expire. That is also the President’s option as well. That is not a very appealing option to anyone.
The problem is that libertarians say that the government is trampling on citizens’ rights while the President, fresh off being only the third President in history to be impeached, wants different changes to the program. Is that enough to let the programs expire? Possibly. Possibly not.
A few details of the bill are available in the WaPo link below and it is likely that the House will vote on it this week, sending it to the Senate to choose – expire or approve. It appears the business records part of the law is dead.
Either way, something will happen on the 15th.
The President says that he will not sign a kick the can down the road bill or a leave things as is bill.
There is some expectation that the President will sign a bill if Congress passes it because his key allies in Congress and Justice have been involved in drafting it.
Stay tuned.