Senate Blocks Warrant Rule for Secret Internet Surveillance

(Bloomberg) -- The Senate fell one vote short of adopting an amendment that would have required a search warrant for the government to conduct secret surveillance of internet users’ search and web browsing data.

The 59-37 vote Wednesday, with 60 needed to adopt the amendment, was a defeat for privacy advocates. Four senators weren’t present, at least one of whom would have voted in favor of the measure.

The amendment sponsored by Republican Senator Steve Daines of Montana and Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon would have been added to a House-passed bill reviving expired surveillance authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Their amendment would have limited the authority under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allowed the government to access a variety of business records in national security investigations.

“The American people will not tolerate warrantless government spying,” Wyden said Wednesday on the Senate floor.

“If you want to see an American’s search history, then you better go to a judge and get a warrant,” Daines said.

Missing Votes

Four senators didn’t vote, including independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Democrat Patty Murray of Washington, and Republicans Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Ben Sasse of Nebraska. Alexander is self-isolating at home after a staffer tested positive for Covid-19.

Murray was flying back to Washington on Wednesday and would have voted for the amendment, according to a person familiar with her plans.

A separate bipartisan amendment, by Republican Mike Lee of Utah and Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont, was adopted 77-19. It bolsters provisions calling for independent legal advisers to help review cases in the secret FISA process overseeing the surveillance authorities, and strengthens a requirement for exculpatory evidence to be turned over to the secret court.

Adoption of the amendment means the measure would have to be returned for another vote in the House, which passed the original bill in March. The Senate is expected to vote on the legislation on Thursday.

Attorney General William Barr negotiated the broader legislation with House Democrats and supports it along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, but some of President Donald Trump’s allies, including Rand Paul of Kentucky, have urged him to threaten a veto.

The underlying measure would revive expired authorities that give the government the ability to seek roving wiretaps across multiple devices and “lone wolf” provisions targeting an individual, as well as the Section 215 business records provision.

Legal authority for those provisions lapsed March 15. The debate is coming amid anger among Republicans over an inspector general’s Senate testimony that the Federal Bureau of Investigation misled a secret court to get warrants for continued surveillance of Carter Page for its investigation of possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.

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