House passes spy program after confusing Trump tweets

By DEB RIECHMANN and JONATHAN LEMIRE
Today

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a confusing morning of tweets by President Donald Trump, the House on Thursday passed a bill to reauthorize a key foreign intelligence collection program with an important tweak: It would require the FBI to get a warrant if it wants to view the contents of Americans’ communications swept up in the process.

Legislation to renew the program that allows spy agencies to conduct surveillance on foreign targets abroad passed the House 256-164 and now heads to the Senate. Trump has said he will sign the bill, which would extend the program for six years.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats calls this foreign intelligence the “holy grail” that provides insight into the thinking and actions of U.S. adversaries. However, the program, which is to expire on Jan. 19, also sweeps up Americans’ communications.

Privacy advocates and some lawmakers from both parties want to require the FBI to get a warrant if it wants to query or view the content of Americans’ communications that are in the database to build domestic crime cases.

The bill passed by the House would allow the FBI to continuing querying the database, using search terms, for information on Americans, but would require investigators to get a probable cause warrant if they want to view the actual content of those communications.

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