Sessions, Coats push for permanent renewal of controversial surveillance law

The Hill: The nation’s top law enforcement leader and top spy on Monday urged Senate and House leadership to permanently renew a widely used but controversial U.S. surveillance law scheduled to sunset at the end of the year.

“Reauthorizing this critical authority is the top legislative priority of the Department of Justice and the Intelligence Community,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats wrote in a Sept. 7 letter to both Republican and Democratic leaders.

The law — known as Section 702 of a 2008 package of amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) —  is aimed at collecting data on foreign spies, terrorists and other targets.

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