On Tuesday, officials from the Biden administration called on Congress to extend a surveillance program that the government has considered crucial in safeguarding national security. However, due to the scrutiny from an unprecedented alignment of civil liberties advocates and a few Republicans, the future of the program remains uncertain.

The program, which falls under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), confers extensive powers on American spy agencies to monitor and scrutinize the communications of foreigners located beyond US borders. Unless Congress decides to extend it, the program is due to expire by the end of the year, the Associated Press has reported.

With a potentially contentious debate expected on Capitol Hill regarding the reauthorization of the program, officials within the Democratic administration endeavored on Tuesday to publicly demonstrate the worth of the statutory powers that could expire.

They maintained that in recent years, the program had provided valuable intelligence on ransomware attacks on vital infrastructure, aided in thwarting potential acts of terrorism and espionage recruitment, and played a role in the drone strike that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri in August last year.

The focal point of the debate is a component of FISA referred to as Section 702, which empowers spy agencies to gather vast amounts of foreign communications without obtaining a warrant, as reported by the AP.

However, civil liberties advocates have scrutinized this tool as it results in the inadvertent collection of data from Americans when they communicate with foreign surveillance targets.

Written by staff