2018
Donald Trump
| Signing Statement |
Affected Law |
| 2018-01 | The FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017
|
| 2018-02 | The African Growth and Opportunity Act and
Millennium Challenge Act Modernization Act H.R. 3445 |
| 2018-03 | The SECRET Act of 2018 H.R. 3210 |
| 2018-04 | Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer
Protection Act S. 2155 |
| 2018-05 | The John S. McCain III, Daniel K. Akaka, and Samuel R. Johnson
VA Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside
Networks Act of 2018” or The VA MISSION Act of 2018 S. 2372 |
| 2018-06 | The North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act
of 2017 H.R. 2061 |
| 2018-07 | The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2019 H.R. 5515 |
| 2018-08 | Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military
Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2019 H.R. 5895 |
| 2018-09 | Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education Appropriations Act, 2019 and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019 H.R. 6157 |
| 2018-10 | Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education Appropriations Act, 2019 and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019 H.R. 6157 |
| 2018-11 | The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 H.R. 302 |
| 2018-12 | The Sam Farr and Nick Castle Peace Corps Reform
Act of 2018 H.R. 2259 |
| 2018-13 | Orrin G. Hatch Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization
Act H.R. 1551 |
| 2018-14 | The Save Our Seas Act of 2018 S. 3508 |
| 2018-15 | The Substance Use Disorder Prevention that
Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act
H.R. 6 |
| 2018-16 | Hizballah International Financing Prevention
Amendments Act of 2018 S. 1595 |
| 2018-17 | Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing
Engineering and Science Success Act of 2018 H.R. 6758 |
| 2018-18 | Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act of
2018 S. 140 |
| 2018-19 | Iraq and Syria Genocide Emergency Relief and
Accountability Act of 2018 H.R. 390 |
| 2018-20 | Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 H.R. 2 |
| 2018-21 | Nicaragua Human Rights and Anticorruption Act of
2018 H.R. 1918 |
| 2018-22 | First Step Act of 2018 S. 756 |
| 2018-23 | Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 2018
H.R. 7213 |
| 2018-24 | Sanctioning the Use of Civilians as Defenseless Shields Act H.R. 3342 |
| 2018-25 | Abolish Human Trafficking Act of 2017 S. 1311 |
| 2018-26 | Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2017 S. 1312 |
| 2018-27 | Innovations in Mentoring, Training, and
Apprenticeships Act H.R. 5509 |
| 2018-28 | Johnson-O’Malley Supplemental Indian Education
Program Modernization Act S. 2943 |
| 2018-29 | Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act
of 2018 S. 1526 |
| 2018-30 | The Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018 S. 2736 |
Signing Statement for S. 139, the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017
____________________
Statement by the President on FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017
ISSUED ON
January 19, 2018
Today, I signed into law S. 139, “FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017” (the “Act”). The Act reauthorizes Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act until December 31, 2023, and makes a number of amendments to current law. Section 702 of Title VII allows the Intelligence Community, under a robust regime of oversight by all three branches of Government, to collect critical intelligence on international terrorists, weapons proliferators, and other important foreign intelligence targets located outside the United States.
This intelligence is vital to keeping the Nation safe. As shown by
the recent attacks in New York City and elsewhere around the globe, we
face a constant threat from foreign terrorist networks and other foreign
actors who would do us harm. In order to detect and prevent attacks
before they happen, we must be able to intercept the communications of
foreign targets who are reasonably believed to possess foreign
intelligence information. Section 702 provides the necessary
authority, and it has proven to be among the Nation’s most effective
foreign intelligence tools. It has enabled our Intelligence
Community to disrupt numerous plots against our citizens at home and our
warfighters abroad, and it has unquestionably saved American lives.
The Act I have signed today preserves and extends this critically
important national security tool.
Section 702 provides robust privacy protections for American citizens, and most importantly prohibits the Government from using it to target Americans and persons located in the United States. Only foreigners located abroad may be targeted for surveillance under section 702. While every court to have considered section 702 has found it to be legal and consistent with the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, the Act establishes additional procedures to further protect the privacy of Americans whose communications are incidentally collected under section 702. Among these is a new requirement that in a predicated criminal investigation — an investigation with an elevated factual foundation — the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) apply for and obtain an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before accessing the contents of section 702 — acquired communications that were retrieved using certain United States person “query” terms. By applying this provision only to certain queries in investigations unrelated to national security, the Act preserves the FBI’s ability to “connect the dots” and look for national security-related threats, especially during the critical pre‑investigation phase when it often does not yet have enough information to know whether a suspected threat relates to national security. Although the Fourth Amendment does not require a court order to query information lawfully collected under section 702 — information already lawfully in the Government’s possession — this new procedure, along with the Act’s other oversight and transparency requirements, provides further privacy safeguards, while preserving the operational effectiveness of our foreign intelligence collection efforts.
I would have preferred a permanent reauthorization of Title VII to protect
the safety and security of the Nation. By signing this Act today,
however, I am ensuring that this lawful and essential intelligence program
will continue to protect Americans for at least the next 6 years. We
cannot let our guard down in the face of foreign threats to our safety,
our freedom, and our way of life.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 19, 2018.
Annotations
S. 139, “FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 (last visited 1/21/2018)
Text of the same signing statement from the Compilation of Presidential Documents (CPD) published by the Office of the Federal Register at the Government Printing Office (GPO)
(click either link below to see the text)
The law to which this signing statement applies is:
S. 139, “FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017" - Public Law 115-118 -- 132 STAT 3
To read the law, select one of the links below:
1. Plain text at the GPO's Public and Private Laws
2. PDF from the GPO's Public and Private Laws
3. Enrolled text from GPO - PDF file
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