Congressional Black Caucus to Support Spying Powers Used on BLM Activists [View all]

The Congressional Black Caucus will support the clean reauthorization of FISA Section 702, a warrantless surveillance authority that has been used to spy on African Americans.

https://prospect.org/2026/04/13/congressional-black-caucus-support-spying-powers-blm-activists-fisa-702/


Credit: Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo

This week, the Congressional Black Caucus will quietly support an effort to reauthorize surveillance powers that were used to spy on Black Lives Matter activists in 2020, the Prospect has learned. According to multiple congressional sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, CBC support for the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) comes after Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the powerful ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, successfully lobbied CBC leadership to stand down on reforming the vast intelligence authority.

Section 702 grants U.S. intelligence agencies the authority to collect communications data on foreign intelligence targets abroad. In practice, however, it has allowed those agencies to amass troves of data on American citizens. The National Security Agency (NSA) is one of many FISA authorities with warrantless access to Americans’ communications data, which the agency has been known to purchase from U.S.-based companies. Privacy advocates like the Brennan Center for Justice contend that the intelligence community’s efforts to reduce the number of U.S. person queries completed under Section 702 only reflect known searches, as the FBI has “neither tracked nor audited these queries as required by law.”

According to The New York Times, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) greenlit the 702 program’s annual recertification in a classified ruling last month. The decision permits FISA authorities to collect communications data through March 2027, regardless of whether Congress extends the statute underpinning Section 702, which is set to expire on April 20. But the presiding judge also raised red flags in the ruling, according to the Times, communicating that there are serious problems with the way intelligence agencies use Section 702 tools to collect communications on American citizens. The judge, as part of the reauthorization, ordered changes to the way Section 702 data is filtered to produce intelligence on U.S. citizens.

The Prospect can report that on March 26, staff on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence received notification of this red flag. In the following weeks, HPSCI staff briefed Democrats in both classified and unclassified settings on the necessity of reauthorizing Section 702. But during both briefings, HPSCI staffers failed to alert Democrats about the FISC’s concerns with collection of U.S. citizen data. Despite the bipartisan push from many of his colleagues to reform Section 702 and to restrict spying powers now in the hands of Donald Trump, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, has worked behind the scenes to encourage Democrats to support a clean reauthorization, while repeating the same hawkish talking points about the urgency of a clean reauthorization. In March, Meeks told The Hill that after speaking with Himes, he would support the clean reauthorization of 702.

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