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FISA Reform Blues

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FISA Reform Blues

Plus: the House passes a short-term FISA extension, Ron Wyden urges fellow Senate Democrats to oppose a “clean” bill, and Norway gets robot buses
CHRISTIAN BRITSCHGI
Hello and welcome to the Reason Roundup, a weekday, morning newsletter from Liz Wolfe. Liz is out on temporary leave, which means you’ll hear from other Reason writers and editors for now. She will be back in May. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.
Short-term FISA extension. The House voted early Friday to extend the expiring Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for another 10 days, as members debate whether to include privacy protections in a longer term extension of the law.

The House vote extends FISA, which was set to expire on Monday, through April 30. Some Republican House members have been demanding that the Section 702 of the law, which allows the federal government to collect the communications of foreigners as well as Americans they communicate with without a warrant, be amended to include additional privacy protections.

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Some lawmakers want to require that the government get a warrant before it searches of Americans’ data collected under Section 702.

The White House and Congressional Republicans have been demanding a “clean” FISA extension without any additional privacy safeguards.

Wyden to the rescue. In the upper chamber, Sen. Ron Wyden (D–Ore.), a longtime FISA reform advocate, is urging his fellow Democrats to oppose a clean reauthorization bill.

“With recent developments in AI supercharging how the government can surveil Americans, Congress must use this upcoming debate to make necessary reforms to all our surveillance laws,” wrote Wyden in a letter to his Senate colleagues obtained exclusively by Politico.

See this interview Wyden gave Reason about FISA and internet privacy.

Scenes from D.C.: Riders on the D.C.-area Metro’s Red Line can enjoy a quintessential D.C. experience this summer: not riding the Red Line. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), the regional agency that operates the Metro, announced that several stops on the line will be closed from June to September while repairs are performed.

Read my 2023 magazine feature on the D.C. Metro’s persistent problems.

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  • Norway gets robotic buses.
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Thank you for reading,
Christian Britschgi

Reporter, Reason
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