House votes to extend FBI warrantless surveillance
Not only did the House betray the Constitution by allowing continued warrantless searches; they passed the largest expansion of mass surveillance since the PATRIOT Act.
Today, the House betrayed the American people and US Constitution by voting to allow the FBI to continue violating a fundamental tenet of US law: that searches require a warrant. Today's vote extends unconstitutional surveillance and represents the largest expansion of the sprawling surveillance apparatus since the Patriot Act.
The Biden Administration resorted to scare tactics to pressure House Democrats to vote to reauthorize the country’s largest (known) surveillance program: Section 702 of FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). On a vote of 273- 147 , the House passed the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act earlier today.
Section 702 allows federal agencies to spy on foreign threats outside the country. But, because it is so vast and broad, it also scoops up hundreds of thousands of private communications of Americans. Even the surveillance hawks admit that the FBI has been abusing this dragnet to spy on Americans. In fact, 702 has become a routine tool of domestic surveillance. In the last few years alone, the FBI used Section 702 to illegally spy on millions of Americans, including judges, reporters, protesters on both the right and left, and sitting Members of Congress.
There was a simple fix: get a warrant. Reps. Biggs (R-AZ), Jayapal (D-WA), Jordan (R-OH), Nadler (D-NY), Davidson (R-OH), Lofgren (D-CA) offered an amendment to require the FBI to get a probable cause warrant before searching through Americans’ data.
But instead of fixing the problem, the House voted down the Biggs Amendment, and passed three amendments to expand the spy program.
Sue Udry, Executive Director commented:
The bill that passed the House today expands the surveillance state and sacrifices Americans’ privacy. RISAA offers special protections against warrantless spying to members of Congress, and hangs the rest of us out to dry.
Defending Rights & Dissent is deeply disappointed that Congress failed to adopt an amendment to require the FBI to get a search warrant before combing through Americans’ private data. Today's vote on the Biggs Amendment was a bipartisan flip flop on the 4th Amendment. Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Ted Lieu (D-CA), both of whom have heretofore been dependable champions of civil liberties, voted against requiring the FBI to get a warrant before searching Americans’ private data. Speaker Johnson (R-LA), who had previously supported a warrant requirement, also changed his mind.
We urge the Senate to reject RISAA.