US surveillance law to expire for first time after lawmakers reject Trump’s controversial pick to lead spy agencies
US surveillance law to expire for first time after lawmakers reject Trump’s controversial pick to lead spy agencies
美国监控法案因议员抵制特朗普提名的情报机构负责人人选，将首次面临失效
The House of Representatives has failed to renew the U.S. government’s warrantless surveillance law before it is due to expire on Friday, all but guaranteeing that it will lapse for the first time, as lawmakers protest the appointment of a controversial Trump ally to oversee U.S. intelligence agencies. The House voted 218-198 on the bill, which needed a two-thirds majority to pass; 19 Republican lawmakers voted against it. According to Politico, the next vote is scheduled for June 23. 美国众议院未能在美国政府的无证监控法案于周五到期前完成续期，这几乎确保了该法案将首次失效。议员们此举是为了抗议特朗普任命其一位极具争议的盟友来监管美国情报机构。众议院以 218 票对 198 票的结果否决了该法案，而该法案需要三分之二多数票才能通过；其中有 19 名共和党议员投了反对票。据《政客》（Politico）报道，下一次投票定于 6 月 23 日举行。
The spy law, officially dubbed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), broadly allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect vast amounts of information, including on Americans, to identify foreign hackers, spies, and potential terrorists. Also known as Section 702 for its place in the law books, the regulation has been considered critical to national security by both Democrats and Republicans for years. Bipartisan efforts to renew the decades-old spy law stalled over recent weeks, and lawmakers were only able to pass short-term extensions to continue negotiations. 这项间谍法案正式名称为《外国情报监视法》（FISA），它广泛授权美国情报机构收集海量信息（包括针对美国公民的信息），以识别外国黑客、间谍和潜在恐怖分子。由于其在法律条文中的位置，该法规也被称为“第 702 条款”，多年来一直被民主党和共和党视为国家安全的关键。两党为续签这项已有数十年历史的间谍法所做的努力在过去几周陷入僵局，议员们仅能通过短期延期来维持谈判。
Critics have been calling for overwhelming reform of FISA, citing abuses of the law by multiple past U.S. administrations. Lawmakers from both parties had sought provisions that would require spy agencies to first obtain a court-approved warrant before being allowed to access the private communications of Americans, though the Trump government had been calling for a clean re-authorization of the law. But a new obstacle sprung up last week for the Trump administration, when the president appointed one of his allies, Bill Pulte, as the acting U.S. director of national intelligence. 批评人士一直呼吁对 FISA 进行彻底改革，理由是过去多届美国政府曾滥用该法律。两党议员曾寻求加入相关条款，要求情报机构在获取美国公民的私人通信前必须先获得法院批准的搜查令，尽管特朗普政府一直要求无条件重新授权该法案。但上周，特朗普政府遇到了新的障碍：总统任命其盟友比尔·普尔特（Bill Pulte）担任美国国家情报代理总监。
The cabinet-level position oversees the government’s dozen-plus spy agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. The appointment stoked fears that Pulte would use the position to attack Trump’s political opponents and gut the top intelligence office that he would oversee. Politico reports Pulte’s appointment was a “clear sign of the recent mood” inside The White House, and described Trump as having become increasingly isolated and driven by grievances. 这一内阁级职位负责监管政府十多个情报机构，包括中央情报局（CIA）和国家安全局（NSA）。此项任命引发了人们的担忧，即普尔特会利用该职位攻击特朗普的政治对手，并削弱他所监管的最高情报办公室。据《政客》报道，普尔特的任命是白宫内部“近期氛围的明确信号”，并形容特朗普已变得越来越孤立，且深受不满情绪驱动。
Democrats had warned that Pulte’s appointment would be a greater risk to U.S. national security than allowing the law to expire, according to The Washington Post. Pulte, who has no intelligence or national security experience, was set to start on the job on June 19, alongside his current role heading a U.S. federal housing agency. But on Thursday, the administration pulled Pulte’s nomination, and replaced him in the role with Jay Clayton, who currently serves as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and was previously the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. 据《华盛顿邮报》报道，民主党人曾警告称，相比让法案失效，普尔特的任命对美国国家安全的威胁更大。普尔特没有任何情报或国家安全经验，原定于 6 月 19 日上任，同时兼任他目前领导的美国联邦住房机构的职务。但在周四，政府撤回了对普尔特的提名，并由杰伊·克莱顿（Jay Clayton）接替该职位。克莱顿目前担任美国纽约南区联邦检察官，此前曾担任美国证券交易委员会（SEC）主席。
But by the time news of Clayton’s appointment broke, many lawmakers had already left the capital for a week-long break, making any last-minute deal to salvage FISA unlikely. 然而，当克莱顿被任命的消息传出时，许多议员已经离开首都去休为期一周的假期，这使得任何挽救 FISA 的最后一刻协议都不太可能达成。
Tapping fiber cables and tech titans
接入光缆与科技巨头
Section 702 of FISA came to mainstream attention during a surveillance scandal in 2013 that embroiled the National Security Agency and several close U.S. allies. Former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked thousands of documents to journalists, revealing the scope of U.S. global surveillance operations, which also included Americans even though they are meant to be largely constitutionally exempt from U.S. surveillance. FISA 第 702 条款在 2013 年的一场监控丑闻中进入主流视野，该丑闻涉及国家安全局（NSA）及其几个亲密的美国盟友。前 NSA 承包商、后成为举报人的爱德华·斯诺登（Edward Snowden）向记者泄露了数千份文件，揭露了美国全球监控行动的规模，其中也包括美国公民，尽管他们本应在宪法层面很大程度上免受美国监控。
Using programs authorized under Section 702, the NSA used these legal powers to collect large amounts of the world’s communications flowing through undersea fiber optic cables, which make up the backbone of the internet. The NSA also accessed broad swathes of user data from tech giants such as Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft under a program dubbed PRISM. 利用第 702 条款授权的项目，NSA 使用这些法律权力收集了大量流经海底光缆的全球通信信息，这些光缆构成了互联网的骨干。NSA 还通过一个名为“棱镜”（PRISM）的项目，从苹果、Facebook、谷歌和微软等科技巨头那里获取了大量用户数据。
While the law itself will expire on Friday, the U.S. government’s spy powers or programs are unlikely to cease any time soon. The spy programs authorized under FISA were already approved in March as part of an annual certification process by the Washington, D.C.-based Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISC, which oversees the government’s surveillance programs and hears applications for surveillance in secret. 虽然该法律本身将于周五到期，但美国政府的间谍权力和项目不太可能很快停止。根据 FISA 授权的间谍项目已于 3 月份作为年度认证程序的一部分，获得了位于华盛顿特区的外国情报监视法院（FISC）的批准。该法院负责监管政府的监控项目，并秘密审理监控申请。
U.S. authorities can still use its surveillance tools under FISA until March 2027, allowing much of the government’s mass surveillance programs to continue operating. But phone companies that provide rolling logs of calls made by their customers to the government may be unwilling to share this information without a clear law allowing them to do so, according to Reuters. Still, the U.S. government has other surveillance avenues it can fall back on, such as Executive Order 12333, which allows the government near-unfettered powers to conduct surveillance around the world. 美国当局在 2027 年 3 月之前仍可使用 FISA 下的监控工具，这使得政府的大部分大规模监控项目得以继续运行。但据路透社报道，那些向政府提供客户通话滚动记录的电话公司，在没有明确法律授权的情况下，可能不愿再分享这些信息。不过，美国政府还有其他可依赖的监控途径，例如第 12333 号行政命令，该命令允许政府在全球范围内拥有近乎不受限制的监控权力。
Bipartisan lawmakers continue to warn of FISA abuses regardless. Earlier this year, Sen. Ron Wyden, a senior Democrat who has long served on the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned that FISA is still being actively used to secretly violate Americans’ constitutional rights. Wyden, who is read in on classified matters but can’t discuss them publicly, said lawmakers are likely unaware that multiple U.S. administrations have relied on a secret interpretation of Section 702, which “directly affects the privacy rights of Americans.” 尽管如此，两党议员仍不断警告 FISA 存在滥用行为。今年早些时候，长期在参议院情报委员会任职的资深民主党参议员罗恩·怀登（Ron Wyden）警告称，FISA 仍被积极用于秘密侵犯美国公民的宪法权利。怀登了解机密事项但无法公开讨论，他表示议员们可能并未意识到，多届美国政府一直依赖对第 702 条款的一种秘密解读，而这种解读“直接影响了美国公民的隐私权”。