US surveillance law to expire for first time after lawmakers reject Trump’s controversial pick to lead spy agencies

While the law itself will expire on Friday, the U.S. government’s spy powers or programs are unlikely to cease any time soon.

The spy programs authorized under FISA were already approved in March as part of an annual certification process by the Washington D.C.-based Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISC, which oversees the government’s surveillance programs and hears applications for surveillance in secret. U.S. authorities can still use its surveillance tools under FISA until March 2027, allowing much of the government’s mass surveillance programs to continue operating.

But phone companies that provide rolling logs of calls made by their customers to the government may be unwilling to share this information without a clear law allowing them to do so, according to Reuters.

Still, the U.S. government has other surveillance avenues it can fall back on, such as Executive Order 12333, which allows the government near-unfettered powers to conduct surveillance around the world.

Bipartisan lawmakers continue to warn of FISA abuses regardless. Earlier this year, Sen. Ron Wyden, a senior Democrat who has long served on the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned that FISA is still being actively used to secretly violate Americans’ constitutional rights. 

Wyden, who is read in on classified matters but can’t discuss them publicly, said lawmakers are likely unaware that multiple U.S. administrations have relied on a secret interpretation of Section 702, which “directly affects the privacy rights of Americans.”