Oklahoma delegation helps surveillance program pass

Oklahoma’s two U.S. senators voted Thursday to reauthorize a warrantless surveillance program, rejecting calls on the political left and right to reform the controversial practice.

The Senate voted 60 to 38 on Wednesday to move ahead toward a final vote without amendments and then voted 65-34 on Thursday to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. In both cases, Sens. Jim Inhofe and James Lankford voted in favor.

“We live in an increasingly dangerous world,” Inhofe said after the Thursday vote, “where our adversaries and terrorists will use every means necessary to attack us, and Congress has a responsibility to ensure that our intelligence communities have the resources they need to stop an attack before it happens.”

Section 702 allows the government to collect from American telecommunications companies the information — emails, phone calls, text messages — of foreigners abroad, even when those foreigners are communicating with Americans.

“Congress abdicated its responsibility to ensure that our intelligence agencies respect the Fourth Amendment,” the American Civil Liberties Union said after the vote. “Instead of instituting needed reforms, lawmakers voted to give the Trump administration broad powers to spy on Americans and foreigners without a warrant.”

The bill now goes to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it.

The FISA program, implemented without public knowledge after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was codified into law in 2008 and extended in 2012. The program’s reauthorization is a disappointment to civil liberties activists, both liberal and libertarian, who have sought to reform the program following 2013 leaks by National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

All members of Congress from Oklahoma support the surveillance program. When the House voted last week to reauthorize Section 702, the state’s five representatives, all of whom are Republicans, voted in favor.