House Intel unveils bipartisan group to oversee FISA Section 702 reform, end 'egregious abuses'

The House Intelligence Committee has created a bipartisan group of lawmakers to focus on overseeing the reauthorization of a key section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to ensure it does not violate Americans’ rights in the wake of "egregious abuses" that have eroded trust in the law.

Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and ranking member Jim Himes, D-Conn., announced the group of Republicans and Democrats to lead the effort in reforming and reauthorizing Section 702 of FISA.

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FISA’s Section 702 allows the government to conduct targeted surveillance of non-U.S. persons located abroad to acquire foreign intelligence information. The current provision is scheduled to sunset on Dec. 31.

Turner and Himes announced that Republican Reps. Darin LaHood, Chris Stewart and Brian Fitzpatrick, and Democrat Reps. André Carson, Joaquin Castro and Jason Crow will lead the effort.

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Turner told Fox News Digital that FISA is a "top legislative priority" for the committee, and Himes characterized it as a "powerful tool that the Intelligence Community uses every day to prevent terrorist attacks, disrupt cyber attacks and gain unique intelligence insights on foreign targets."

"Unfortunately, there have been significant and egregious abuses of Section 702 that have eroded the trust of the American people, putting FISA’s reauthorization at risk," Turner said. Still, he said the reauthorization of Section 702 is "necessary to ensure the Intelligence Community maintains its ability to collect invaluable foreign intelligence to stay a step ahead of our adversaries," even though it must be tweaked to ensure U.S. constitutional rights are protected.

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Himes agreed, saying it is the "duty" of Congress "to ensure that these authorities do not violate Americans’ constitutionally protected rights and to look at further reforms to protect those rights."

During the Trump administration, Republicans complained about FISA abuses after the FBI obtained a FISA warrant and multiple renewals against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

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The Justice Department inspector general released a report revealing the failures of FISA that led to the warrant against Page. FBI Director Christopher Wray in 2020 called those failures "unacceptable" and said they "cannot be repeated."

In November 2020, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which has oversight of the FISA system, issued an opinion that revealed the FBI had been "seriously and systematically abusing its warrantless electronic surveillance authority."

That opinion detailed the FBI's "apparent widespread violations" of privacy rules in conducting surveillance under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but was not related to the controversial FISA warrant against Page.

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Section 702 authorizes the attorney general and the director of National Intelligence to jointly authorize warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. persons reasonably believed to be located outside the United States.

The section requires the adoption of "targeting procedures" to ensure that acquired information is limited to non-U.S. persons to prevent the "intentional acquisition" of U.S. domestic communications, according to U.S. Code. The section also requires the use of minimization and querying procedures, specifically requiring that the government obtain a FISC order for any review of Section 702 query results in criminal investigations unrelated to national security.

In December 2022, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) declassified a 2021 report that detailed FISA abuses. The report stated that the FBI, under Section 702, searched data for an unnamed member of Congress and local political organizations to determine if they had ties to foreign intelligence.

During a House Intelligence Committee hearing this month, LaHood said he believed that he was the unnamed lawmaker unlawfully queried by the FBI.

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The FBI said it could not comment on specific queries, but said the bureau "has made extensive changes over the past few years… to address 702 compliance issues," including the creation of a whole new "Office of Internal Audit," which is focused on FISA compliance.

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That office is responsible for instituting new policies requiring "enhanced pre-approval requirements before certain ‘sensitive’ U.S. person queries can be run," the FBI said in a statement to Fox News Digital, explaining that "'sensitive’ queries involving elected officials now require Deputy Director approval."

"We look forward to sharing the impact of our reforms," the FBI said. "The FBI takes seriously its role as stewards of our 702 authorities, which are indispensable to fulfilling our mission of protecting Americans from foreign threats from countries like China, Russia, and Iran."