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US Senate Backs Extension of FISA Bill for Spying on Foreigners Abroad - Sullivan

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The US Senate has endorsed a bill to reform and extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which authorizes electronic surveillance of foreigners outside the United States, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Saturday.
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This section of the law expired on April 19. On Tuesday, the bill was supported by the House of Representatives, which extended the law for two years instead of five as originally intended. At the same time, it rejected an amendment that would have required intelligence agencies to receive a warrant to access information on US citizens obtained in the course of surveillance of foreigners.
"We applaud the Senate’s passage of H.R. 7888, the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act ... The President will swiftly sign the bill into law," Sullivan said in a statement issued by the White House.
FISA Section 702 permits the US government to conduct targeted surveillance of foreign persons located outside the US. However, lawmakers have been pursuing reforms to the authority, after an investigation revealed that the US government abused the surveillance power hundreds of thousands of times.
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