Lawmakers in Congress are staring at the real possibility that a key law allowing the U.S. to gather the communications of foreign threats abroad will expire.
They say that if Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, lapses, it would be happening at a particularly vulnerable time, given the U.S.’s ongoing war in Iran. And they say it could create a blind spot regarding crucial data.
“If we lose FISA, we lose the ability to defend this country the way that it should be defended,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees. “We use that information to find out what the bad guys are doing, where they’re at, what they’re looking to attack, what their strategies are.”