The U.S. Senate recently agreed to approve and extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The legislation permits the National Security Agency (NSA) and other foreign intelligence groups to wiretap the conversations of foreign citizens without a warrant. 

Civil rights agencies across the country have for years expressed dismay at the measure, and others similar to it saying they’re undemocratic, and restrict civil liberties in the name of national security. Despite the national outcry against it, the Senate voted 73-23 Friday, Dec. 28 to extend it. 

Local groups that have long opposed the FISA include the American Civil Liberties Union, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Arab American                 Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services.  A few years after the attacks on 9/11 the groups urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review an extraordinary decision by a secret appeals court to broadly expand the government’s powers to spy on U.S. citizens. 

FISA was initially enacted in 1978, and allows the U.S. government to collect intelligence from foreign parties that may be detrimental to national security. 

The FISA Amendment Act of 2008, (FAA) which includes a provision that puts any U.S. citizen engaged in correspondence with a person overseas at risk of being spied on. The FAA also gives power to the government to access emails and phone calls made by U.S. citizens under the condition that one of the people involved in the conversations lives outside the United States. 

In May 2012, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO) sent a letter to the NSA asking how many Americans were spied on since the FAA came into effect, the NSA did not provide an answer.  

Wyden was quoted as saying, “If no one will even estimate how many Americans have had their communications collected under this law, then it is all the more important that Congress act to close the ‘back door searches’ loophole, to keep the government from searching for Americans’ phone calls and emails without a warrant.” 

Those who support FISA say it’s necessary, Americans would be less safe without it. The bill must now be signed by president Obama in order to be extended for another five years.