Biden administration officials urged Congress on Tuesday to renew a surveillance programme that the U.S. Government has long seen as vital in countering overseas terrorism, cyberattacks and espionage operations.
The programme, which is under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, grants American spy agencies sweeping powers to surveil and examine communications of foreigners located outside the United States.
It's set to expire at year's end unless Congress agrees to renew it. Officials in the Democratic administration are bracing for a contentious debate on Capitol Hill about reauthorising the program, with civil liberties advocates aligning with Republicans in raising concerns about the scope of the government's spy powers. In an effort to preemptively head off privacy concerns, intelligence and national security officials sought to make a public case Tuesday that the statutory authorities at risk of expiring have yielded valuable insight in recent years into ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure.