Clock ticking down on NSA surveillance powers

I'm sure you meant to say "Congress" will be returning. Of course, it's really not that difficult to confuse them with a pair of smelly sneakers, either (Pun intended).

Thank you Erin for the interesting share, have a great day.

Section 702 actually does a number of things. One of those is the authorization for NSA to monitor foreign nationals for intelligence purposes, no matter what communications network those foreign nationals are using. Second, it allows NSA to continue to monitor those foreign nationals who are intelligence targets even when they are communicating with U.S. persons, in the U.S. or overseas, but the identity of the U.S. person must be hidden ("masked") in any reporting, and such monitoring must be kept to the minimum required to collect the information needed for foreign intelligence purposes ("minimization"). This is part of the 4th Amendment question raised by some privacy advocates, but has very little traction in Congress.

The most contentious part of the reauthorization is the use of the database of collected information by other agencies, specifically the FBI, who has two missions. One is a counterintelligence / counterespionage mission and the other is a law enforcement (criminal) mission. The question is whether the FBI needs to obtain warrants to search the database, and that is the bigger 4th Amendment question that does have quite a bit of traction in Congress. It is most likely that this portion of Section 702 is where any changes will be made, mostly about requiring warrants for FBI searches of the database, at least in pursuit of criminal cases.