It would be “devastating” if the U.S. government scrapped a security program dealing with warrantless surveillance abroad, FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Senate panel Tuesday.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act makes it so the government isn’t required to obtain a warrant when collecting “the communications of targeted foreigners,” according to The Hill. The program expires at the end of the year unless renewed by lawmakers.
Crafted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the program has drawn the ire of both Republican and Democratic lawmakers recently. The debate comes as China and Iran in particular pose security risks, Wray said.
The Republican pushback
According to NBC News, some Republican hesitancy to renew Section 702 stems from a conservative “crusade” against the FBI. Republicans allege that the FBI has been weaponized against them, according to NBC News.
However, other pushback against Section 702 includes doubts that FBI reforms to warrantless wiretapping abroad have restrained the FBI enough, Reuters reported.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee “accused the FBI of ignoring existing warrant requirements under the law and expressed skepticism about the FBI’s internal reforms,” according to Reuters.
“It’s never different,” Reuters quoted Lee as saying. “You haven’t changed.”
In addition to foiling some terror attacks, Section 702 has been accused of being a “vehicle” for American citizens to be spied on by the U.S. government, according to Fox News.
Terror threats elevated
Wray also said that potential terror threats are unprecedentedly high after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel amid the Section 702 debate, according to Fox News.
Wray said that the timing to scrap Section 702 is wrong, according to NBC News.
“When it comes to foreign adversaries like Iran, whose actions across a whole host of threats have grown more brazen — seeking to assassinate high-level officials, kidnap dissidents, and conduct cyber attacks here in the United States — or the People’s Republic of China, which poses a generational threat to our economic and national security, stripping the FBI of its 702 authorities would be a form of unilateral disarmament,” Wray said in his opening remarks.
According to Fox News, November attacks on U.S. military bases in the Middle East rose from the prior month to at least 74.