There’s a lot to unpack in the bombshell announcement by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) last week that the CIA has been conducting a bulk collection program and searching through the resulting data for information about Americans.

“Bulk collection” is what happens when the government vacuums up data indiscriminately rather than targeting individuals or groups. The term was last in the news when whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 that the NSA had collecting Americans’ telephone records in bulk.

You might be asking, didn’t Congress end bulk collection? The short answer is no. In 2015, Congress passed legislation that ended the NSA’s program and sought to prohibit bulk collection when the government is acting under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). But that law only applies to certain types of surveillance that target U.S. persons or happen inside the United States. When the collection happens overseas or falls into one of FISA’s statutory gaps, it takes place under Executive Order 12333, issued by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

As the Brennan Center noted in a 2016 report, most foreign intelligence surveillance actually takes place under EO 12333, not FISA. That means it is subject to no statutory constraints whatsoever, and there is no judicial review or oversight. EO 12333 does place some limits on surveillance, but not shockingly, its rules are much more permissive than those Congress established in FISA. Bulk collection is just one example — it’s banned under FISA but permitted under EO 12333…

…At this point, you’re probably wondering what kind of data the CIA is collecting in bulk and using to spy on Americans. We don’t know, because the Biden administration is refusing to declassify a single word about the nature of the program. Similarly, while the CIA’s official statement says that the congressional intelligence committees have been kept fully informed about the program, Wyden and Heinrich — both members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence — say otherwise. (Given the track record of the parties, my money’s on Wyden and Heinrich.)…