President-elect Donald Trump has railed against the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as a tool of the “deep state,” but his nominees for key positions keep endorsing the most controversial section of the spying law during their Senate confirmation hearings.

CIA director nominee John Ratcliffe on Wednesday voiced support for Section 702 of the law, which allows “backdoor” searches on Americans, days after national intelligence director nominee Tulsi Gabbard flip-flopped to support the provision. Attorney general nominee Pam Bondi staked out a more ambiguous position while calling the law “very important.”

Overall, that leaves FBI director nominee Kash Patel as the sole intelligence pick to overtly oppose the law. The growing support among Trump nominees was summed up in a comment Ratcliffe made during his Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

“It is critical. It is indispensable. And for critics of it, no one has offered a replacement,” Ratcliffe said.

For years, civil liberties advocates have begged Congress to reform FISA, which lays out how the federal government can collect and use intelligence collection ostensibly directed at foreigners.

Under the law, the government is barred from targeting U.S. residents, but critics say it has gaping loopholes. Americans’ international conversations can be caught up in the NSA dragnet. Once the NSA has scooped up the phone calls, text messages, and emails of supposedly foreign communications, the law allows the government to search that haul for information on U.S. persons.

The FBI conducted 200,000 “backdoor searches”

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