Lawmakers scramble after Trump derails bid to revive key counterterrorism tool days after FBI thwarts UFC plot
The Senate was nearing a resolution to a key hurdle to revive the nation’s most valuable counterterrorism tool, until President Donald Trump blew it up.The last-minute wrench into the Senate’s...
By Fox News · Fox News
The Senate was nearing a resolution to a key hurdle to revive the nation’s most valuable counterterrorism tool, until President Donald Trump blew it up. The last-minute wrench into the Senate’s march toward reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) comes just days after a domestic terror plot was foiled in Washington, D.C. It’s a program that its champions and critics say is critical to thwarting terror plots abroad, and one heavily used by the FBI, which over the weekend foiled a plan to use bomb-laden drones and snipers to potentially kill thousands at Trump’s Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) birthday celebration. The Senate was on its way to confirming Trump’s pick to be the next Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Jay Clayton, in a bid to get one step closer to reauthorizing Section 702, but Trump’s eleventh-hour decision to call off Clayton’s confirmation hearing halted all momentum. SPY PROGRAM CREDITED WITH STOPPING TAYLOR SWIFT TERROR PLOT BARRELS TOWARD EXPIRATION "It is the single most important program in terms of maintaining national security, and putting Mr. Clayton into the Department would have eliminated an obstacle for having that happen," Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said. "I'm not sure. I think it's a mistake for the president to have done this, and hopefully, he'll change his mind." FISA reauthorization has long been a policy-based issue on the Hill. Boiled down, the Section 702 program allows the U.S. government to collect intelligence on foreigners abroad who are using U.S. communication systems, and it serves as a major part of Trump’s daily intelligence briefing. But it also sweeps up communications from Americans who are talking to foreign suspects, and proponents pushing reforms argue that loopholes in the program allow for the surveillance of Americans on U.S. soil. But it’s now morphed into a deeply political issue on the Hill — Democrats recoiled weeks ago when Trump tapped his Housing director,…