Utah representatives split on reauthorization to US government surveillance program

WASHINGTON — Utah's four Republican representatives were split over a vote on Friday to reauthorize and reform a key U.S. surveillance tool after what Rep. John Curtis called a "gnarly" debate between House colleagues.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act outlines how U.S. officials can gather foreign intelligence. Congress has been focused on Section 702, which gives the government power to surveil electronic communications of noncitizens abroad without warrants.

That provision sometimes leads to the warrantless surveillance of American citizens who are in contact with foreign targets of surveillance — which has led members of both parties and privacy advocates to seek reforms as lawmakers move toward reauthorizing the law before it expires on April 19.

The reauthorization bill passed with bipartisan support and opposition after an amendment to end the warrantless surveillance of Americans failed to earn support from a majority of lawmakers. HR7888, the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, now heads to the Senate for consideration.

Three of Utah's representatives — Curtis and Reps. Celeste Maloy and Burgess Owens — voted for the amendment proposed by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, to end warrantless surveillance of citizens.

Rep. Blake Moore, a member of House leadership, voted against that amendment. Moore and Maloy ultimately voted in favor of the final bill, which included other requested reforms to the surveillance program, while Owens and Curtis voted against the proposal.

Maloy explained her position on the bill in a statement to KSL.com, saying, "The federal government shouldn't have any more authority to spy on American citizens."

"Today, I voted in support of a FISA reform bill that includes increased civil and criminal penalties for violating Americans' Fourth Amendment rights," the congresswoman continued. "Holding agents accountable for abusing Americans is a top priority for me. I am disappointed that certain amendments didn't make it into the final bill, but I'll work with my Senate colleagues to secure even more safeguards."

Moore issued a lengthy statement on his position, saying the bill "contains a vital set of 56 long-overdue reforms" to FISA. As for his opposition to the Biggs amendment, he said federal courts have ruled that Section 702 doesn't violate Fourth Amendment rights to unreasonable searches and seizures.

"The U.S. government already needs a warrant and probable cause to collect intelligence and investigate a U.S. person's data, and if Section 702 reveals that a foreign terrorist network is communicating with a U.S. citizen by phone and they want to investigate further, a warrant is required for that too," he stated.

"Reforming and reauthorizing FISA is critical to stopping the multitude of threats against the United States originating overseas," he continued. "My vote was taken in consideration of these challenges as well as with a strong desire to ensure it protects American liberties. This bill does both."

In a video posted to social platform X shortly after the vote, Curtis said the debate on the bill was one of the lows of the week on Capitol Hill.

"It was gnarly," he said, "and, to be honest, contentious among colleagues."

FISA was "intended to spy on people who are not in our country and are not citizens of our country" but has been abused "hundreds and hundreds of times to spy on Americans," Curtis said in a later video explaining his vote.

After the amendment to end warrantless surveillance failed, Curtis said he was unable to support the underlying bill.

"If I'm going to err, I'm going to err on the side of government not looking into our lives," he said. "We did put a lot of guardrails on it, but we didn't have this warrant requirement in there, which is in the end why I didn't vote for it."

The bill's path to passage this week was a rocky one after 19 House Republicans blocked a procedural vote on the bill Wednesday in response to a social media statement from former President Donald Trump urging them to "KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!"

In his statement, Trump appeared to conflate different sections of FISA, according to Politico, as the section used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to obtain a warrant to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page is different from Section 702. Page was surveilled as part of the investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election, which resulted in charges against six Trump associates but did not find evidence to charge the campaign with colluding with Russia.

A former attorney for the FBI was sentenced to probation in 2021 for altering an email the Department of Justice used to justify its surveillance of Page, according to the Associated Press.

To ensure passage of the legislation, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, proposed shortening the extension from five years to just two, arguing Republicans can make further changes when reauthorizing the bill should Trump return to the White House.

The House passed several other amendments to Section 702, which allow it to be used to gather intelligence on foreign organizations trafficking narcotics and allow some congressional leaders to observe classified hearings in front of a court that oversees FISA cases.

HR7888 now heads to the Senate and must pass that body and be signed by President Joe Biden before April 19 to prevent FISA from lapsing. Utah Sen. Mike Lee has long been an outspoken critic of FISA powers and was on the floor during the House vote after taking to social media to urge representatives to require a warrant before the government can read an American's communications or search for them in the database.

"The Intel BrosTM want the American people to be scared so that they don't use facts in deciding whether warrantless surveillance of American citizens is a bad thing," he said on X, referencing many members of the intelligence community who have pushed for the bill and said a failure to reauthorize Section 702 would threaten national security.

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday urged the House Appropriations Committee to reauthorize Section 702.

"Our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home," he said. "But now increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia concert hall a couple weeks ago."

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