ICYMI— Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today spoke on the Senate Floor in favor of a short-term extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702, a vital foreign intelligence tool.

Senator Cotton’s full floor speech may be found here and below.

Mr. President, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, also known as FISA, is a critical national security tool. Well over half of every item in the president's daily brief is derived from Section 702. It has stopped terrorist attacks. It's stopped the flow of deadly drugs into our country. It's protected our troops overseas. It's allowed us to rescue troops overseas. Regrettably, the Democrats, led by the two minority leaders, are going to allow this critical authority to expire tomorrow night.

Again, this program, which has been on the books for almost 20 years, is one of the most important intelligence tools that we have. And why are they going to let it expire? I guess the minority leader is mad about who Donald Trump chose to run an intelligence agency on an acting basis. An agency, by the way, that has very little to do with Section 702. To the extent it does, legislation I proposed with Senator Warner and other leaders in this Senate would impose more guardrails on that agency and by the way, if the law expires tomorrow night, all the guardrails on that and every other agency expire as well. So, even though we haven't been able to pass the legislation that Senator Grassley and I co-authored with Senator Warner and others, the responsible next step is to have a short-term extension of this legislation, especially as we begin welcoming literally millions of foreigners to this country for the World Cup and for the America 250 celebrations right around the corner.

If we don't extend it for at least a few weeks while we continue to try to work out our differences, the consequences could be severe—the consequences, to be frank, could be fatal. Americans should not have to face that risk because of partisan game playing by the minority leader of the Senate and the House. So, Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask for unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the bill at the desk. I further ask the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Responding to that fog of misunderstanding and misleading statements, Section 702 does not surveil Americans. It is to put it simply about foreigners in foreign countries. So, say an IRGC leader in Iran talking to one of his operatives in Lebanon or a Russian in Moscow talking to a Russian in Mexico. All of whom are usually up to no good.

The government is not permitted to use Section 702 to target Americans either here or in other countries. It's called Section 702 because as is usually the case, laws have other sections to them. Like Title One has sections of the law that govern any targeting of an American and those sections require a probable cause warrant, which is the Senator’s from Oregon's great crusade. So-called reverse targeting of Americans using Section 702 is prohibited. Requiring a probable cause warrant for this information is akin to requiring a police officer to get a new warrant every time he goes into the evidence room to review lawfully collected evidence.

Now, for all the talk about transparency and oversight and privacy protections, I would point out that the legislation I've introduced has more than a dozen additional measures to include, for instance, criminal penalties for any abuse, to include more congressional involvement in the FISA court's processes, more reporting to the committees on which the Senator from Oregon sits. Just like the law we passed two years ago had many additional transparency measures and privacy protections. And as I pointed out, if this law is allowed to expire tomorrow night, so do all those transparency measures and all those privacy protections.

So it's regrettable that we've reached this point. Mr. President, I just hope that the American people don't pay the consequences for the Democrats’ reckless intransigence. I yield the floor.

All of these ideas are totally unworkable and also beside the point. The Senator from Oregon has never voted for Section 702. He is an implacable ideological opponent of this law.

These measures too are, for what, a five-week extension that he would then extend permanently. It doesn't sound like a very reasonable offer to me. But almost every one of them is designed to make this program unworkable and to expose Americans to grave risk.

There are already again dozens of transparency measures and privacy protections in place under a law passed just two years ago by a Democratic Senate, signed by a Democratic president. The legislation that Senator Grassley and I drafted with another Democratic senator, the Vice Chairman of my committee, the Intelligence Committee, has nearly two dozen more. It is never enough for the Senator from Oregon. So perhaps the Minority Leader of the Senate and the House will eventually come to their senses and vote to support legislation that key leaders in their party have drafted to protect this country, but it will never be enough for the Senator from Oregon.

So I of course object.

A five week extension for permanent radical unworkable reforms. That's a farce.