House passes compromise bill on surveillance reform

The US House of Representatives approved legislation that would institute some reforms of the government’s surveillance authority while also imposing new requirements on the way the FBI obtains wiretapping warrants in national security investigations following criticism of its monitoring of a Trump campaign adviser in 2016. The bill also permanently bans a controversial but dormant program that allowed the government to obtain Americans’ phone records in terrorism investigations.

The bipartisan bill — an attempt to satisfy Republican lawmakers angry at the FBI’s handling of its Trump campaign investigation and Democratic lawmakers seeking broader surveillance reform — passed on a 278-to-136 vote just two days before lawmakers leave town. Democratic Reps wanted surveillance reforms to enhance privacy, and President Donald Trump’s Republican Reps wanted measures to curb what they saw as abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the 1978 law governing surveillance used in terrorism and espionage investigations. The result — packaged in legislation to reauthorize what is known as the USA Freedom Act, which in turn amends FISA — assuaged moderates, but disappointed libertarians on the right and privacy advocates on the left. The legislation now moves to the GOP-controlled Senate, where passage is expected the week of March 9.