The White House renewed its call Friday for Congress to reauthorize an intelligence surveillance law that has come under fire from lawmakers.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows the U.S. government to conduct targeted surveillance of foreign people outside of the United States. While the law bars investigators from using it to target Americans or anyone on domestic soil, sometimes communications between them and foreign subjects are captured in the process and kept in a database.

But in May, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a FISA Court ruling that found the FBI improperly searched for information on U.S. citizens in the database 278,000 times over several years. The subjects of the search included Capitol riot suspects, political campaign donors and protesters following the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, the court said.

Section 702 is set to expire at the end of the year unless Congress reauthorizes it. But members of both parties have expressed concerns about doing so unless changes are made.

Government officials say the surveillance tool is needed to protect the country and its allies from foreign adversaries, including terrorists, spies and cybercriminals. 

In a call with reporters Thursday, John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, urged Congress to renew the law. He pointed to an op-ed written by retired Navy Adm. James “Sandy” Winnefeld Jr. for FoxNews.com. 

In it, Winnefeld, who chairs the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, wrote about his 19-year-old son’s death from an accidental overdose of fentanyl-laced heroin. Winnefeld argued that allowing Section 702 to lapse could result in more needless drug deaths. 

“In the case of fentanyl, Section 702 could alert officials to a drug cartel working with a U.S. person, but the targeted collection of that person’s communications would generally require a warrant,” he wrote.

Winnefeld quoted a report issued jointly by his board and the Intelligence Oversight Board that concluded, “if Congress fails to reauthorize Section 702, history may judge [its lapse] as one of the worst intelligence failures of our time."

Kirby echoed that sentiment.

“This is just one example that demonstrates the breadth of the importance of Section 702 and how critical it is to securing our nation, from helping our law enforcement, intelligence and security institutions understand and respond to threats posed by the People's Republic of China to helping us rally the world against Russian atrocities in Ukraine and to helping us locate and eliminate terrorists who still intend on causing us, our national interests, our people, our allies and partners, harm,” Kirby said.

The chairs of the Senate and House intelligence committees are among those who have called for Section 702 reforms.

“That means, first and foremost, addressing the warrantless surveillance of Americans in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said during a June hearing. “Moreover, the reforms must also include safeguards to prevent future abuses and ensure effective oversight by Congress and the courts.”

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing in July, FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged the bureau “clearly had failures in the past” with FISA searches, but he added that the FBI has “implemented a whole series of reforms” since the abuses came to light and that audits by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and Justice Department have indicated those reforms are working.”

But some lawmakers, including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Turner, R-Texas, have expressed skepticism about reforms being implemented without Congress’ input.

In a statement in April, Turner, along with Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., said it “is incumbent upon Congress, not the Executive Branch, to codify reforms to FISA Section 702.”

“Without additional safeguards, a clean reauthorization is a non-starter,” they added.

LaHood heads a bipartisan working group created by the House intelligence panel to conduct a comprehensive review of FISA and recommend reforms.