Top officials and some lawmakers say letting a powerful spying authority expire on Saturday will leave the United States dangerously blind. But surveillance can still continue.
A key surveillance power is on track to expire after midnight after Congress deadlocked over renewing it, prompting warnings from President Trump, members of Congress, and current and former U.S. intelligence officials that the United States is about to “go dark” to foreign terror plots, crippling cyberattacks and other grim threats.
But the reality is more complicated. A legal quirk would most likely allow the program authorized by the law — Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA — to continue operating well into next year, although technology companies that cooperate could resist doing so, potentially leading to some gaps in intelligence collection.
That dynamic — and the existence of other legal tools for surveillance that will still be on the books past Friday — has prompted some lawmakers and privacy experts pressing for changes to the law to argue that the deadline is little more than a mirage intended to generate a false sense of urgency to assure its survival with minimal changes.
Here’s what you need to know as Section 702 lapses for an extended period for the first time since it was enacted in 2008.
A lapse would imperil one of the nation’s most powerful surveillance tools.
As Congress tried and failed over the past couple of weeks to reach a deal to extend the law, proponents suggested the stakes could not be any higher.
Its expiration comes during a war with Iran and as the United States begins to host World Cup matches and prepare for its semiquincentennial celebration this summer — huge events that will require heightened security.