Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, 87,000, that is how many lives were at risk in August 2024 when Austrian security services thwarted a devastating terrorist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna.

Many of these lives could have been young girls from around the world, including Americans. Now this tragedy was halted because, thanks to section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Austrian authorities were able to cancel the concert and apprehend the plotting terrorists, all because U.S. intelligence Agencies were able to share critical intelligence gathered under section 702 authority before the attack occurred.

In 4 very short days, title 7 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, including this essential service, expires. We can't let that happen.

Section 702 happens to be our most nimble and effective intelligence collection tool. Section 702 equips our military with a strategic advantage. It protects our troops overseas, and it keeps terrorists, foreign adversaries, and dangerous illicit drugs from harming Americans, enabling over 90 percent of synthetic drug disruptions.

It helps our intelligence and law enforcement community to defend our homeland from attacks, and it is essential for protecting our cyber security infrastructure.

Title 7 then is critical to our national security, but it doesn't just protect us from security threats; it also protects us from government abuse and government overreach.

Now, if title 7 expires, not only do we lose section 702's utility, we also lose all of its civil liberties, privacy, transparency, and accountability measures. There is a dangerous assumption that the program will function seamlessly if this statute expires on Friday.

Well, I hope the certifications issued a few months ago will still apply in the event of the statute lapsing. This is not a certainty. There will be high-stakes litigation and a very real possibility that intelligence collection will cease, at least temporarily. And in this work of intelligence gathering, minutes do matter. Letting 702 lapse is a real gamble that we can't afford to take.

So let's be very clear, if section 702 lapses, our adversaries will benefit greatly and Americans will suffer. In other words, we will be less secure in our safety as well as our privacy. Over the last few weeks, I have worked closely with Senators Cotton and Warner, the administration, the national security community, and Members of the House to develop a product that delivers meaningful reforms while maintaining section 702's essential operational effectiveness.

This product is bipartisan, bicameral, and it strikes the right balance. The reforms in our bill build on the substantial reforms passed by the Congress in 2024. Again, I want to be clear that the reforms of 2024 that goes by the acronym RISAA are working. FBI query compliance is at 98.9 percent, with the remaining noncompliant queries due to typos and other harmless errors.

This isn't the same program plagued by abuse a few years ago that civil libertarians rightly condemned and by their condemnation brought about some of the reforms in the 2024 bill. Because our bill builds on what the House sent us a few weeks back, it retains and strengthens the provisions and the good progress made by our colleagues in the other Chamber and, at the same time, adds 11 additional reforms that deliver real transparency and accountability.

So let me list just a few. First, it requires the Justice Department to rescind and replace the Department of Justice memo drafted by the previous administration that, quite frankly, illegally restricts congressional oversight access to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Now, why the previous administration didn't want to carry out the transparency requirements of the last Congress, I don't know, but they didn't do it.

Secondly, it gives Congress a voice in the amici appointment process by requiring leadership to submit a bipartisan list of candidates to whom the FISC court is obliged to give the highest preference.

Three, it levies criminal penalties on those who willfully violate querying standards.

Fourth, it limits and clarifies the definition of an ``electronic communication service provider,'' thus addressing a concern of civil liberties groups across the political spectrum.

Fifth, it requires the FBI monthly to submit U.S. person query justifications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the Civil Liberties Protection Officer for review.

And, sixth, it requires noncompliant queries and abuse to be referred to the inspector general.

Now, there is other points that could be made, and I could go on, but I think the point is very clear when it comes to transparency and accountability that we have added to what was started in 2024.

There is no doubt that this bill is a compromise. That is how things are done in the U.S. Congress and, particularly, in the Senate. This bill isn't the clean reauthorization called for by the administration. This bill also isn't the maximalist approach called for by some skeptics of this program.

This bill reflects what the American people expect and the American people deserve: the reauthorization of a very important national security tool but coupled with meaningful guardrails and transparency.

If title 7 lapses, not only will these thoughtful and thorough reforms fail to become reality, but we will lose many of the key reforms instituted in the last reauthorization of 2024.

This section 702 is the most transparent and most scrutinized intelligence collection in history. If it lapses, so does Congress' essential insight into and oversight of its functions.

So we owe it to our constituents to protect them from threats, from terrorists, and other adversaries, but also to defend their privacy and civil liberties. Our bipartisan, bicameral, thoughtful bill accomplishes both goals.

I appreciate the collaboration with my colleagues Senator Cotton and Warner, and I appreciate the collaboration and engagement from the administration and from our national security partners.

I am grateful for the engagement from the House of Representatives. We got this bill to a very good place, and it is the kind of a bill that should have significant support from both sides of the aisle.

Now, we need to finish this job. We need to put aside partisanship and do what is right by the American people. We need to advance this bill to the President's desk and reauthorize this very critical program.

My Democratic colleagues should recognize that walking away from this deal isn't hurting President Trump; it is hurting the American people.

I hope my colleagues appreciate this bill for what it is, and I pray that we can consider this bill later this week. And I urge everyone in this Chamber to vote yes on reauthorizing section 702 in this very careful and very thoughtful way now before the U.S. Senate.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source