Tester says Thursday he wants changes in FISA before renewal

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., held a press call with rural media outlets Thursday morning, where he discussed a number of ongoing issues in Congress including the upcoming renewal of surveillance legislation and the situation at the U.S. southern border.

Tester is running for reelection and faces Michael Hummert of Helena in the Democratic primary.

Tester said Thursday that the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allows intelligence agencies to access American citizens’ data without a warrant if they ever interact with a foreign target of the law.

He said the intent of the law is to combat foreign agents that seek to harm America, which is good, but it gives the government too much power to collect massive amounts of data from citizens on insufficient grounds.

“If you’re going to do that, you better have a damn warrant,” he said.

He said he supports new legislation that is being made to remove this capability, which he said violates the privacy of Montanans and Americans at large, and it has gained some support.

The deadline for renewal is today, but opponents of the bill, whose primary concern is indeed the legislation’s allowance of domestic spying, may delay reauthorization past the deadline, which will cause it to go out of effect until reauthorized.

Tester said another issue of immediate concern is the surge of migrants at the southern border, which he said needs to be addressed for the sake of everyone.

He said President Joe Biden and Congress must do everything they can, through executive order and legislation respectively, to address the crisis, which could have been addressed months ago by a bipartisan bill that would have given the executive branch broader authority to respond to the surge, and allocated increased resources to border patrol and other law enforcement.

He said he’s been a strong supporter of increasing resources to law enforcement to stem the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S. and funding for just that purpose is on the horizon at least.

Months ago, he said, bipartisan legislation, was killed by Republicans despite Democrats making massive concessions to them in negotiations, which he has said was all for the sake of keeping the crisis alive as an election year issue.

On the subject of political gamesmanship, Tester said, the impeachment proceedings for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who many Republicans blame for the crisis, are just that, gamesmanship, political theater that many of his reasonable colleagues from across the aisle have correctly called a distraction that solves nothing.

The Senate Wednesday rejected the impeachment articles the House had sent over this week.

Tester also talked about ongoing efforts to improve rural ambulance services, which he said is incredibly important to places like Montana, and funding coming through the bipartisan infrastructure bill that will go to improving local emergency services, schools and law enforcement facilities.

He also briefly discussed efforts to increase access to VA housing vouchers and educational benefits.