Congress is expected to vote on the reauthorization effort later this year before it expires on December 31.
NSA Director Michael Rogers broke down two scenarios in which the core controversy, namely the incidental violation of the right to privacy for US citizens, comes up.
The hearing is focused on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), though there are likely to be questions involving the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and Russian interference in the 2016 USA election.
As part of the reform, officials had promised that they would reveal broad details about the number of American citizens about whom information has been, and is, collected.
"The President seems to complicate things from time to time, but it's hard for me to believe that FISA will not be renewed", said Sen.
He went on to note that without Section 702, intelligence agencies would have to obtain a court order issued due to probable cause - ostensibly the bar that needs to be cleared in order to surveil USA citizens.
Section 702, which authorizes the collection of data on foreign persons overseas who use U.S. tech and communications services, was the legal basis for the so-called PRISM surveillance program, which reportedly taps data from nine tech titans including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and others.
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"We have never, not once, found an intentional violation of this program", Coats said. "We can't handcuff our national-security officials when they're fighting against such a vicious enemy", Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton said in defense of the bill.
Republican senators said Section 702 is used for counterterrorism purposes and "is one of the most effective tools available to the intelligence community" to fight threats against the United States.
Privacy advocates criticized the push to make Section 702 permanent, arguing that regular reviews of the law were necessary to conduct appropriate oversight and prevent potential abuses.
Reuters reported in March that the Trump administration supported renewal of Section 702 without any changes, citing an unnamed White House official, but it was not clear at the time whether it wanted the law made permanent. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from OR, told Coats.
"What the director said today is in my view a 180-degree retreat from what he said earlier and what his predecessor said earlier. I won't stop pushing for real transparency about this end-run around the Fourth Amendment".
Section 702 of FISA has come under scrutiny amid the intelligence community's probe into Russia's election interference and whether Trump's campaign team colluded with Moscow during the election to undermine then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Ron Wyden (D-OR) monologued instead of asking questions during Wednesday's Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. Rogers and Coats repeatedly declined to answer, even as Coats admitted that he was not sure he had a legal basis for doing so.
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