There’s a growing question on Capitol Hill as the expiration of sweeping U.S. government surveillance powers looms: Where is the Trump administration?
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday on the 2024 law that revised the surveillance authorities known as Section 702, a part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Advocates have said that information collected under Section 702 — under which national security officials controversially can use U.S. citizens’ personal information to query a database for collection of their electronic communications with foreign targets without a warrant — accounts for 60% of the intelligence included in the President’s Daily Briefing.
But no Trump administration witnesses testified at the hearing. Nor did any testify at a recent House hearing. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said at Wednesday’s hearing that he wanted to scrutinize the changes to Section 702 under the 2024 law, which came in the wake of significant abuses of the authorities and is set to expire at the end of April.
“Today I had hoped to hear from witnesses about whether those reforms had been appropriately implemented and whether they’ve been effective, but I can’t ask those questions of officials from the government who are actually implementing those reforms because they’re not here,” he said. “We are three months from the expiration of Section 702, and the Trump administration, as best as I can discern, still has no official position on it. That is stunning.”
“I think it’s unacceptable that with just 90 days [before expiration the administration doesn’t know how it thinks about the program and has nobody here to explain or defend it,” Coons continued.
The top Democrat on the panel, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, also said he was “disappointed” the administration wasn’t at the hearing. When Durbin led the panel, he had administration witnesses appear before the committee six months before Section 702 was then set to expire at the end of 2023, and administration officials began a public push for renewal almost a year in advance of its sunset.
Frustration toward the Trump administration over its communication about Section 702 wasn’t just limited to committee Democrats. Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, complained about how he and Durbin had written to Attorney General Pam Bondi about President Joe Biden and now Donald Trump not allowing — “despite a statutory mandate to do so” — panel members and staff to attend hearings of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that makes important decisions about the use of Section 702 authorities.
“We’ve yet to receive a meaningful response,” Grassley said.
Commenting on the administration’s absence, Grassley said Congress had a duty to consider reauthorizing Section 702 regardless of the administration’s views.
“If the administration would like to brief us in an open or closed setting, I will work to set it up,” he said. “In the meantime, the Senate Judiciary Committee needs to move ahead.”
Experts and other lawmakers have also observed the Trump administration’s relative quiet about Section 702. Trump himself has repeatedly thrown the stipulation’s future into turmoil during past renewal debates.
The National Security Agency referred a question about the administration’s views and discussions with Congress to the Defense Department. Spokespeople for the DOD, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, FBI, Justice Department and Central Intelligence Agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
During his nomination hearing to lead the FBI, Kash Patel testified on the importance of Section 702 authorities and not impeding them with a warrant requirement. As a member of Congress, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard opposed renewal of Section 702, but has offered mixed signals since, including during her own nomination hearing.