Ongoing efforts to enhance Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act query compliance were detailed by FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate June 13 during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on FISA Section 702.
At the hearing, he described policy adjustments listed in the New FBI FISA query accountability procedures and field office health measure fact sheet. The changes made in 2021 and 2022 led to significant improvements, according to a June 13 news release.
“FISA authorities and the ability of the FBI to query FISA 702 holdings are absolutely critical to the national security of the United States," Abbate said in the release. "It is also imperative that the American people have trust and confidence that these queries are being done lawfully and in a compliant manner. The FBI has made significant progress, but still has work to do.”
He said the FBI is dedicated to advancing the situation and ensuring workers operate within the parameters of its 702 authority, the release reported.
Abbatte said the protection of national security depends on the capacity to acquire Section 702 data while strictly adhering to the law, the release said. Individuals that query 702 data will be held personally liable under these new accountability standards made through the policy adjustments for both purposeful misbehavior and careless or negligent activity.
Leaders of field offices will be subject to additional changes that assess their FISA compliance procedures. The FBI is implementing the changes listed in the fact sheet. The release reported FBI Director Christopher Wray and the full FBI leadership team will implement further field office steps to ensure the proper use of this tool.
The FBI implemented a number of changes beginning in the summer of 2021 to deal with the underlying issues that led to FISA query compliance incidents that were discovered by the Department of Justice during routine oversight examinations, according to the release.
The 2021-22 reforms have already had a large positive impact according to the FBI’s Office of Internal Auditing, the release said. The overall number of U.S. person searches has decreased by almost 94%, and the compliance rate with the querying standard has increased by 14 percentage points to 96%.
