Lost amid the constant headlines about hearings on social media companies and Russia, is that Congress is having the most important debate on privacy rights in years.

While it’s an uphill battle, if enough pressure is put on representatives in the coming months, there is a real chance some of the most controversial NSA surveillance powers exposed by Edward Snowden could be substantially restricted.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) – the controversial spying provision that allows the NSA to spy on hundreds of thousands of foreign individuals and warrantless access to Americans’ emails – expires at the end of the year. The Trump administration and intelligence agencies are lobbying for the law to be permanently reauthorized, but a bipartisan coalition of congressmen are pushing for important reforms.

Section 702 is the law that’s behind the Prism program first revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013. At its essence, the law authorizes two types of broad spying powers: “downstream” surveillance, where the secret Fisa court approves surveillance orders on broad categories of people overseas who may be talking to Americans, which the NSA can access at a lower standard than a traditional probable cause warrant. And “upstream surveillance”, where the government uses its covert access to internet backbone and scans large amounts of email and web traffic that goes into and out of the United States.

How many Americans are affected by the law? We literally have no idea – because the government refuses to disclose it. But we do know it’s likely unconstitutional. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have been challenging the constitutionality of the law for years, but so far the government has thrown up so many procedural and catch-22 secrecy hurdles, there’s never been a definitive ruling on the law.

‘There is a real chance some of the most controversial NSA surveillance powers exposed by Edward Snowden could be substantially restricted.’ Photograph: Guardian video

Right now, there are so many competing bills in the Section 702 reauthorization fight that it’s hard to keep track. First, there’s the Senate intelligence committee’s proposal to reauthorize the law in full and forever – which they marked up and passed out of committee in complete secrecy last week. Not only does it codify the existing rules as they are now, but it would even allow the government to expand some of its capabilities.

Then there’s the “USA Liberty Act”, which pretends to reform the law, but leaves so many loopholes it’s just barely a step up from what exists now.

And finally, there is the gold standard: the “USA Rights Act”, written by Democrat Ron Wyden, Republican Rand Paul – and co-sponsored by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren – which provides several robust reforms while keeping the least controversial parts of the program intact.

Wyden and Paul have been asking for years for the NSA to give Congress and the public just a general estimate of the amount of Americans who have their communications swept up under this law. The NSA first steadfastly refused for years. Then, during the waning days of the Obama administration, they finally said they would give an estimate. And the Trump administration has now backtracked on that promise.

Think about it: the Trump administration is demanding that Congress reapprove an expansive spying law but won’t be upfront about how many Americans it even affects.

The USA Rights Act would force the government to release this information. It would also force the government to get a warrant before conducting what are known as “backdoor” searches, where the FBI goes into the NSA’s vast Section 702 databases and mines the data for all sorts of other crimes that aren’t related to national security. In addition, it provides several other commonsense oversight and transparency provisions while not hampering national security.

This is the bill everyone should support. The EFF has an easy-to-use tool that allows you to contact your member of Congress to make your voice heard. I would implore everyone, no matter what state you live in, to do so immediately.

Here’s why it’s important that you do it now: the last time Congress had to reauthorize Section 702, they waited until the very last possible moment – just a few days before the law was to expire – and used the holiday season, when most people were with their families on vacation and phone calls to the Capitol would be at a minimum, as cover. Many members of Congress then lamented the lack of time to work on reforms. They had known about the deadline for years, and there had been sensible, modest reforms on the table for months – but they still voted against them.

You can expect surveillance defenders in Congress to do the same this year. If the Trump administration gets its way, the NSA will have expanded surveillance powers extended indefinitely, so the time to act is now.



