[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 67 (Thursday, April 16, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1812-S1813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  FISA

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, soon, we will cast important votes here in 
the Senate on surveillance law. I rise today to share some important 
new developments about the surveillance practices of this 
administration, which are vital to this debate.
  Today, I want to start by warning my colleagues: Any Senator who 
votes to reauthorize this law without real reform will be directly 
responsible when the Trump team abuses their spying powers to go after 
Americans. I want the Senate to know the alarm bells are loud and 
getting louder.
  Senators know the surveillance law known as section 702 of FISA 
expires on Monday. I have been on the Intelligence Committee since the 
law was written. It is undeniably a useful tool that American 
intelligence agencies rely on to collect information about foreigners 
outside the country. The problem is that 702 lacks adequate safeguards 
to protect Americans whose emails and texts or other communications can 
get swept up in this surveillance. So you could have Americans doing 
legitimate, often sensitive, important work--journalists, foreign aid 
workers, people with family overseas, even women seeking abortion 
medication from a provider overseas.
  Reformers argue that 702 should only be reauthorized with stronger 
protections--protections for constitutional

[[Page S1813]]

rights--and that is particularly true when there are blaring alarms 
warning of abuses, some of which Congress has yet to be told about. I 
am going to highlight now some of those alarm bells.
  For years, there have been jaw-dropping abuses of section 702. 
Government officials have searched through 702 data to find Black Lives 
Matter protestors, political campaign donors, elected officials, even a 
State judge who complained about police abuses.
  Opponents of reform say that the problems with the law have been 
fixed. The facts show otherwise.
  One of the biggest flaws in section 702 is what is called the 
``backdoor search loophole.'' Mr. President, 702 is supposed to be an 
authority aimed at foreigners outside the United States, but the 
government is currently allowed to trawl their way through the vast 
collection of 702 data to conduct warrantless searches for Americans' 
communications. Last year, the FBI increased the number of warrantless 
searches it conducted for Americans' communications by more than a 
third. That is concerning enough right there. Yet it gets worse.
  The number of so-called ``sensitive'' warrantless searches--which can 
target elected officials, journalists, or the leaders of political 
organizations--more than tripled during the first year of the Trump 
administration. The FBI has refused to say why. Given Trump's 
enthusiasm for investigating journalists and political opponents, this, 
too, is a blaring alarm warning of abuses that Congress has not been 
told about.
  The government is also circumventing warrant requirements by using a 
credit card. A few weeks ago, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that 
the FBI is actually buying up Americans' location data. If the 
government wanted to compel companies to hand over this information, it 
would need a warrant, but through a loophole in the law, government 
Agencies--we are talking about the FBI, ICE, CBP, and the Pentagon--can 
buy this sensitive information from sleazy, shady data brokers with 
essentially no oversight.
  The fact is, if you are going to close the data broker loophole, the 
time to act is now. You are not going to get another chance this year.
  Yet another blaring alarm went off a few weeks ago. On March 17, the 
FISA Court--the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court--found major 
compliance problems with section 702. These problems are directly 
related to Americans' constitutional rights.

  In the past, the government would work with that court to fix these 
kinds of problems. Today, the press reports that the Trump 
administration is appealing the court ruling so that they never--never, 
Mr. President--have to fix the problems.
  This raises a serious question: How can Congress reauthorize the 
authority while the appeal is pending and nobody knows what reforms are 
actually needed? I am going to have a lot more to say about this part.
  The court ruling needs to be declassified. Americans ought to have 
the ability to understand what their government is up to.
  I will remind my colleagues there is another separate, secret law 
problem with section 702. Multiple administrations have relied on a 
secret interpretation of 702 that directly impacts the privacy rights 
of Americans. The Director of National Intelligence, unfortunately, has 
turned down my request to make this information public, so I have 
written a classified document that explains the problem in more detail. 
I have made it available in a secure room at Senate Security. I urge 
this afternoon in the strongest possible way--I encourage my colleagues 
to read it so Senators can hear the alarm bells loudly warning us of 
abuses that Congress hasn't been told about.
  We are also being warned about the impact of new technology on 
Americans' constitutional rights. I want to talk, for example, about 
the implications of artificial intelligence on this debate, and these 
are fairly new developments that I think most Senators have not heard.
  The CEO of one of America's largest AI companies sounded this warning 
several weeks ago. He did it in a message about his firm's 
multimillion-dollar contract with the Department of Defense.
  Here is what this AI CEO said:

       AI-driven mass surveillance presents serious, novel risks 
     to our fundamental liberties. To the extent that such 
     surveillance is currently legal, this is only because the law 
     has not yet caught up with the rapidly growing capabilities 
     of AI. For example, under current law, the government can 
     purchase detailed records of Americans' movements, web 
     browsing, and associations from public sources. . . . 
     Powerful AI makes it possible to assemble this scattered, 
     individually innocuous data into a comprehensive picture of 
     any person's life--automatically and at massive scale.

  This is one of the most powerful voices in the field of AI. I am 
citing somebody who really understands the underpinnings of what AI is 
all about, and he is warning Congress about the impact of AI-powered 
surveillance.
  Let me repeat that. One of the most powerful voices in the field of 
AI is warning Congress at this time about the impact of AI-powered 
surveillance. I hope my colleagues will listen to him.
  I recently wrote to several leading AI companies to ask them about 
whether government agencies could use their products to analyze 
information on Americans collected through this kind of bulk 
surveillance. None of them denied that their products could be used 
this way.
  I want America's intelligence and law enforcement agencies to take 
advantage of new technologies that can help them protect public safety 
and national security, but new tools require new rules. Without new 
rules, you can count on the executive branch to run roughshod over 
Americans' privacy rights and constitutional freedoms. It is not hard 
to see how these capabilities could be abused--especially to target 
immigrants, people attending protest rallies, women seeking abortions, 
and Donald Trump's other perceived enemies.
  The fact is, there is a bipartisan, bicameral group of Members that I 
am part of that has worked together to come up with a solution to these 
kinds of challenges.
  Among other important reforms, our bill would require the government 
to get a warrant if it wants to deliberately read an American's emails 
or texts. That would be whether the information is collected under FISA 
or outside of FISA. And it would finally close the data broker 
loophole.
  The fact is, what we are hearing about now, these new developments 
which are breaking weekly about government surveillance, ought to give 
the U.S. Senate--every Senator--Democratic, Republican, Independent--
ought to take some pause here. My last floor statement on surveillance 
was only a month old, and I have read through a whole laundry list of 
stunning new developments that have emerged since then.
  I am truly amazed that some of my colleagues seem ready to give the 
executive branch a blank check to keep trampling on Americans' 
constitutional rights. Congress can and must protect Americans' 
security and Americans' rights at the same time.
  Ben Franklin said anybody who gives up their liberty to have security 
really doesn't deserve either. We ought to be thinking about that at 
this crucial time.
  I urge my colleagues to insist that the renewal of section 702 
include real reforms--actual black-letter text--to protect Americans' 
privacy rights. Senators ought to oppose any extension--any extension--
that does not include the kinds of reforms I have been talking about 
this afternoon.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.