The US Senate voted 60–34 early Saturday to reauthorize and amend controversial intelligence legislation known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), just after the provision expired at midnight. Section 702 authorizes federal intelligence services to collect data from non-US “persons reasonably believed to be located outside the [US] to acquire foreign intelligence information” without a search warrant.

This provision, passed in 2008 as a counterterrorism measure, has been under scrutiny from civil liberties activists because data from US citizens and residents is often unintentionally collected when a foreign target is surveilled. The US Director of National Intelligence reported that the FBI made 204,090 warrantless searches of US persons’ data collected from section 702 in 2022, which is down from 3,394,053 such searches in 2021. The FBI is only required to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) when searching a US person’s Section 702 data for evidence of a non-national security-related crime.

Due to civil liberties concerns, this year’s Section 702 reauthorization, called the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, limits how the FBI can use Americans’ data. It restricts the ability of FBI personnel to search US persons’ data without consulting an attorney or supervisor and requires the FBI director to discipline agents who violate these restrictions. The bill also sets a two-year deadline for Section 702 reauthorization instead of five years.

Despite the changes, five senators unsuccessfully tried to amend the proposal. Among the amendments were one from Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) which would have struck a new definition of “electronic communication service provider” and another from Senator Dick Durban (D-IL), which would have largely prohibited warrantless searches of US persons’ data.

After the bill’s passage, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan pledged that US President Joe Biden “will swiftly sign the bill into law.” Sullivan said that the bill “will retain essential authority to understand and protect against a wide range of dangerous threats to Americans while enhancing safeguards for privacy and civil liberties through the most robust set of reforms ever included in legislation to reauthorize Section 702.

However, a number of senators remained unconvinced that the bill would protect civil liberties. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) voted against the bill and posted on X (formerly Twitter), “If the government wants to listen in on your conversations, they should have to get a warrant. Period.”

The Section 702 reauthorization now heads to President Biden’s desk for his signature.