<\/p>\n
Congress has two<\/span> months to decide whether to abandon, renew, or reform a controversial surveillance law at the heart of Edward Snowden\u2019s leaks.<\/p>\n Administrations of both parties have taken a lead role in jockeying<\/a> over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, typically working to tamp down reform talk. Trump officials, however, were absent at a hearing on the subject Wednesday.<\/p>\n The silence continued Thursday, when President Donald Trump\u2019s nominee<\/a> to serve as National Security Agency director dodged a question about FISA reforms at a confirmation hearing.<\/p>\n The White House says it is working behind the scenes, but the administration\u2019s lack of a public stance has garnered criticism from Democrats. Even the Republican chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, seemed to express frustration with the no-show at his hearing.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the administration would like to brief us in an open or closed setting, I will help work to set it up,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the meantime, the Senate Judiciary Committee needs to move ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked for comment, the White House declined to explain why the administration was absent.<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration is having productive discussions,\u201d the White House said in an unsigned statement.<\/p>\n Grassley and other lawmakers are working ahead of an April 20 deadline to renew FISA\u2019s Section 702.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The provision allows the FBI and other agencies to search through a massive trove of ostensibly \u201cforeign\u201d intelligence gathered when NSA spymasters point their collection tools abroad. Those \u201cforeign\u201d communications, however, include large quantities of information sent from and to Americans.<\/p>\n Civil liberties advocates have long sought to force agents at the FBI and other entities to obtain a court-approved warrant before conducting \u201cbackdoor\u201d searches for information on American subjects.<\/p>\n They came within a single vote of achieving their aim in 2024, when a bipartisan coalition banded together to support a warrant requirement. The push failed in the House of Representatives, but Section 702 supporters were forced to agree to a short-term extension that expires this year.<\/p>\n Since the last debate, the advocates\u2019 case has been bolstered by a federal court opinion finding that the FBI violated one man\u2019s rights <\/a>by searching a Section 702 database without a warrant.<\/p>\n Trump has at times lashed out at FISA <\/a>because a separate provision of the law was abused to improperly spy on an adviser to his 2016 presidential campaign<\/a>. When push came to shove during his first term, however, the Trump administration supported a renewal of the law without warrant protections. His nominees for top posts also lined up to oppose further reforms during confirmation hearings<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s nominee to serve as NSA director, Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd, gave little indication as to where he stood on the issue during testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday.<\/p>\n Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked him whether he would support a warrant requirement, with exemptions for emergency, \u201cfour-alarm crisis\u201d situations.<\/p>\n Rudd sidestepped the question.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, senator, that is a topic I would need to look into and get a better understanding of to give you a more fulsome and complete answer on that one,\u201d he said. \u201cAgain, what I would highlight though is supreme confidence that the men and women of the NSA are committed to protecting civil liberties and privacy of American citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n At the separate Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, experts on both sides opined on the controversial law \u2014 but no one from the administration attended to answer questions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are three months from the expiration of Section 702 and the Trump administration, as best as I can discern, still has no official position on it. That is stunning,\u201d said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who in 2024 voted to extend the law in its current form.<\/p>\n Joe Biden\u2019s administration aggressively lobbied lawmakers for months to support a renewal of the law without modification during that go-around.<\/p>\n Coons, for his part, said he did not know how he would ultimately vote on the issue this year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nWarrant for \u201cBackdoor\u201d Search?<\/h2>\n