The headquarters of the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Md., in an undated photo.NSA/The New York Times
The Senate on Thursday passed a bill to renew a critical foreign intelligence collection program dubbed the "holy grail" because it allows U.S. spy agencies to conduct surveillance on foreign targets abroad.
The Senate voted 65-34 to reauthorize the program for six years. The bill, which already has been passed by the House, now heads to the White House where President Donald Trump has said he will sign it into law.
While the program focuses on targets abroad, Americans' emails, phone calls and other communications get vacuumed up in the process of collecting the foreign intelligence. Privacy advocates and lawmakers from both parties have argued for years that government agencies should need warrants to look at Americans' communications in the database.
The bill that passed lets the FBI keep scanning the database of the intelligence collected on foreign targets, using search terms, for information on Americans. But it would require a warrant to view the actual content in cases unrelated to national security. Exceptions would apply, such as for murder and kidnapping cases. It also would require a warrant only in criminal investigations that are in their final stages.
The bill's proponents say the new provision will further safeguard Americans' communications, but opponents say the warrant requirement would rarely kick in and does little to further protect the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens. The main thrust of the intelligence program, which provides insights into the thinking and actions of U.S. adversaries, is unaffected.
Before the vote, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, called the program the "single most important intelligence tool that exists" to keep America safe, but acknowledged those who say the bill does not offer enough privacy protections.
"I think what we've seen is a process that's tried to take into account concerns that not just members but the American people have had with programs that operate within a degree of secrecy," Burr said. "I respect the fact that some still disagree with us — though the number is small."
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, also said the program was a critical tool to safeguard the United States.
"I do not believe it has been abused or will be abused," Warner said. "This legislation includes meaningful reforms on furthering civil liberties protections, making sure that questions many members have asked over the years will — a year from now — be able to have those answers."
Moments after the vote, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties advocacy organization, tweeted its opposition to the bill that passed: "While nominally directed at foreign intelligence surveillance, this bill actually violates Americans' Fourth Amendment rights to privacy."
While the program is aimed at foreign intelligence gathering "no American is off-limits," the group tweeted.