WASHINGTON — Federal counterterrorism officials have argued that a law allowing domestic investigators to review foreign intelligence collected overseas can foil potential terrorist plots and save lives.

But as Congress considers how to reauthorize the law regulating the government’s use of such information, lawmakers from both parties and many others in the country want stricter controls to better protect privacy.

The FBI’s use of foreign intelligence is at the heart of the debate over the future of the 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act, including the controversial Section 702. The law is set to expire Dec. 31.

There is bipartisan agreement that the law is invaluable in helping to track foreign spies, terrorists, weapons trafficking, and cyber criminals. But some members of Congress and privacy advocates want greater protections for the communications of Americans that also are picked up.

‘‘The idea of blinding the agent — putting some restriction on his ability to see information that we already constitutionally have sitting in our own databases — the irony of that is tragic to me,’’ FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a recent forum on the subject.

But the government already has many tools it can use to collect information about someone without a warrant, said Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, a staunch advocate of privacy rights. He said it can obtain phone records — who someone called and when — without a warrant.

‘‘That will show if this bridge suspect is talking to terrorists,’’ Wyden said. ‘‘Going straight to reading the content of private communications without a warrant is an end-run around the Fourth Amendment,’’ which protects Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures.

‘‘Think about it,’’ he said. ‘‘Would you want the government reading your e-mails or listening to your phone calls, just because someone called the FBI and said you looked suspicious?’’

Associated Press