By Annie Grayer, Evan Perez, Sean Lyngaas, CNN
(CNN) — With just days until a powerful surveillance law lapses, US national security officials are scrambling to prepare for potential blind spots in intelligence collection amid the US’ delicate ceasefire with Iran, current and former officials told CNN.
Some communications carriers that manage data for the surveillance program have privately warned the Trump administration they will cease collecting data on April 20, when the law is set to expire, if it is not renewed, according to US officials and private-sector officials familiar with the discussions. The companies fear they will face liability issues if they collect the data when the law is expired.
“We are going to go blind for a while and that’s incredibly concerning amid a war,” one former senior national security official said.
Now, White House adviser Stephen Miller and CIA Director John Ratcliffe are leading the Trump administration’s eleventh-hour push to convince skeptical Republican lawmakers to support a clean reauthorization of the law for 18 months. Even though the House is scheduled to vote on the bill this week, it is unclear whether GOP leadership can deliver the votes.
And CIA officials have also reached out to former national security officials in Democratic administrations to seek their endorsement, as a way to appeal to hesitant Democrats, according to the former officials.
The CIA is also touting the law for helping thwart a terrorist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in 2024 and providing intelligence used in a raid by the Mexican military this year that killed drug kingpin “El Mencho.”
The law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), allows authorized US officials to gather phone calls and text messages of foreign targets, but can also scoop up the data of Americans in the process.
Senior national security officials have for years said Section 702 is critical to thwarting terror attacks, stemming the flow of fentanyl into the US and stopping ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure. Civil liberties groups on the left and the right, meanwhile, argue the surveillance authority risks infringing on Americans’ privacy.
Last month, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court renewed approval for Section 702 for another year in an expected classified ruling that was first reported by The New York Times. But if the statute itself lapses, carriers are balking at participating without explicit legal assurances from the government, according to the sources familiar with the discussions.
But the Trump administration has a complicated history with Section 702. The president and his supporters have previously conflated the law with other legal methods used to investigate Russian interference in US elections and allegations that people associated with the Trump campaign in 2016 were connected to those Russian efforts.
A classified hearing on Section 702 earlier this year erupted in bipartisan frustration because the FBI and other national security officials refused to say whether the Trump administration wanted Congress to renew the law, as CNN previously reported.
Pro-702 Republicans are hoping President Donald Trump will push lawmakers to support the bill, while Democrats hoping to reform the law are using Trump as an argument that the surveillance authority needs more checks.
Miller and Ratcliffe last month held a classified briefing at the White House on the importance of Section 702 with members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus in attendance, a source familiar with the meeting told CNN.
The debate over the program’s reauthorization has exposed deep divisions among Republicans who have competing views on the government’s surveillance authority.
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan and House Intelligence Chair Rick Crawford have been meeting with all factions of Republicans trying to make the case for the bill’s reauthorization and to emphasize what is at stake for national security if the program doesn’t get renewed by Congress.
“They have been pounding the pavement,” a GOP source familiar with the negotiations told CNN.
Republican lawmakers at odds with the legislation are opposed for different reasons.
GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, for example, has said she will not support the FISA reauthorization without attaching Trump’s federal elections overhaul bill, the SAVE America Act, even though it faces steep odds in the Senate. And Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs has insisted that the bill include reforms like warrants before querying Americans’ communications.
The federal court ruling last month could further inflame debate around Section 702. The judge found that the Trump administration’s proposal for using certain “technical capabilities” in support of the surveillance program “could present deficiencies,” according to an unclassified talking points memo about the ruling prepared by the administration, which CNN obtained.
The memo did not elaborate on those deficiencies, but proponents of Section 702 have seized on it.
Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, a privacy hawk who sits on the intelligence committee, on Friday called on the court ruling to be declassified.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, who previously supported Section 702 reauthorization, recently wrote to his colleagues on why he is opposed to a clean reauthorization this time.
“The safeguards put in place in 2024 have been badly eroded by the Trump Administration,” Raskin argued in a March letter to fellow Democratic lawmakers obtained by CNN.
Supporters of the 18-month reauthorization, however, say letting the program lapse beyond April 20 and relying on the intelligence court’s reauthorization not only creates security concerns, it creates the risk that lawmakers will no longer feel the pressure to act.
“The program going dark post-April 20 is a huge problem,” the GOP source familiar with the negotiations told CNN.
The-CNN-Wire
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