These include authorizing the FISC to appoint amici curiae to address privacy and civil liberties concerns and enhancing public transparency and reporting requirements under FISA. We urge the committee to consider permanently reauthorizing these authorities based not only on the government’s demonstrated record and the importance of the authorities to national security, but also on the significant reforms contained in the FREEDOM Act. NSA’s careful approach to the program, and the legal obligations imposed by the FREEDOM Act in the form of judicial oversight, legislative oversight, and transparency, support the reauthorization of the CDR program. The CDR program may be needed again in the future, should circumstances change. But the CDR program retains the potential to be a source of valuable foreign intelligence information. As this committee is aware, the NSA recently discontinued the CDR program for technical and operational reasons. The FREEDOM Act also permanently banned bulk collection under FISA’s business records and pen-trap provisions and under the National Security Letter statutes. The CDR authority provides a “narrowly-tailored mechanism for the targeted collection of telephone metadata for possible connections between foreign powers or agents of foreign powers and others as part of an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism.” H. It replaced the National Security Agency’s (NSA's) bulk telephony metadata collection program with a new legal authority whereby the bulk metadata would remain with the telecommunications service providers. Congress added this authority to FISA four years ago in the FREEDOM Act as one of several significant FISA reforms designed to enhance privacy and civil liberties. The fourth authority-the Call Detail Records (CDR) provision-permits the targeted collection of telephony metadata but not the content of any communications. Although the government has not used the lone wolf provision to date, it is critical this authority remain in the government’s toolkit for the future, as international terrorist groups increasingly seek to inspire individuals to carry out attacks, without necessarily providing the kind of coordination or support that would authorize traditional FISA surveillance. Without the authority, the government could not rely on FISA to respond to those kinds of threats. The “lone wolf” provision was added to FISA in 2004 to close a gap in the government’s ability to surveil a foreign person who is engaged in international terrorism or international proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, but who lacks traditional connections to a terrorist group or other foreign power. The government has used these important national security authorities judiciously, with the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and in the interest of national security. The business records authority allows the government to collect records, papers, and other documents that are relevant to a national security investigation. The roving wiretap authority enables the government to continue surveilling a court-approved national security target when the target takes steps to thwart the surveillance. These provisions are important in national security investigations and are comparable to provisions available in ordinary criminal investigations. Two of the authorities, the “roving wiretap” and “business records” provisions, have been part of FISA since 2001. Before that, these same authorities were reauthorized multiple times between 20, each time following extensive congressional review and deliberation. ![]() Three of the authorities-the roving wiretap, business records, and lone wolf provisions-have been part of FISA for well over a decade and have been renewed by Congress multiple times, most recently in the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015 (FREEDOM Act). As indicated in the Director of National Intelligence’s letter to this committee, the administration strongly supports permanent reauthorization of these provisions. ![]() Chairman Graham, Ranking Member Feinstein, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today about four important provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that will expire at the end of this year unless reauthorized by Congress.
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