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In the past, Members of the Committee have reviewed the full
text of a small number of U.S. person FISA Court order applications and the Committee staff has reviewed a small number of redacted applications. In some instances, the redactions in the applications reviewed by staff have been so extensive as to reduce significantly the utility of the review process.
Therefore, as noted above, the Committee
has based its oversight
judgments largely on its review of the Attorney General’s semiannual classified reports and on extensive discussion with officials of
the Department of Justice, Office of Intelligence Policy and Review,
the FBI, and the NSA, in whom the Committee continues to place
its trust and confidence.
,
However, effective oversight must be based on a more permanent
foundation than good working relationships. Members of Congress
and their staffs, and exectuive branch officials and their staffs,
come and go. Soon, few will remain who were present at the creation of
FISA.
With the foregoing in mind, and with the continuing increase in
the use of the authority provided by FISA to electronically surveil
US. persons, and others, the Committee has concluded that its continued ability to state with confidence, as it has in the past, that
U.S. person surveillances are being conducted fully within the
letter and spirit of the law, must depend on a more thorough
review of applications. This will include a regular schedule of
review of a larger number unredacted applications by both Members and a limited number of staff selected by the Committee. The
Committee expects the Department of Justice to cooperate in this
effort.
IV. STATISTICAL
SUMMARY
Section 107 of the Foreign Intelligence Survellance Act provides
that:
In April of each year, the Attorney General shall transmit to the Administrative Office of the United States
Courts and to Congress a report setting with respect to the
preceding calendar year—
(a) the total number of applications made for orders
and extensions of orders approving electronic surveillance under this title; and
(b) the total number
of such orders and extensions
either granted, modified, or denied.
On April 4, 1988, the Attorney General submitted the report re-
quired by section 107. The pertinent section of the report stated:
During calendar year 1982, 473 applications were made
for orders and extensions of orders approving electronic
surveillance under the Act. The United States Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court issued 475 orders granting
authority to the Government for the requested electronic
surveillances. No orders were entered which modified or
denied the requested authority.®
* The number of orders exceeds the number of applications for either of two reasons. A single
application may request authority to surveil more than one facility of the same foreign power.
Continued
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