House Republican and Democratic lawmakers are pressing Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to avoid attaching Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reform legislation to any must-pass bill such as spending measures.
A bipartisan group of 28 lawmakers are sending a letter to Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, and Mr. Jeffries, a New York Democrat, pressing them to oppose any attempt to attach reauthorization of Section 702 of the nation’s key spying tool to “must-pass” legislation and, instead, to allow floor votes on key FISA reforms.
The letter was spearheaded by Republican Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state and Val Hoyle of Oregon.
“We urge you to oppose any attempt to attach reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to a ‘must pass’ legislative vehicle, which could endanger final passage of the underlying bill,” the letter stated. “These actions are crucial to carry out our duty to safeguard Americans’ constitutional right to privacy while ensuring our national security.”
Section 702 grants the government broad powers to capture mass quantities of electronic communications to snoop for evidence of foreign plots and dangers.
Americans are not supposed to be targeted but can have communications ensnared and even searched without a warrant.
The lawmakers, many of whom are members of the Judiciary Committee, said that since FISA’s enactment 15 years ago, government agencies have routinely “misused Section 702.”
“In 2022, the FBI used Section 702 over 200,000 times to search for Americans’ data, circumventing the Fourth Amendment,” they said. “These searches unjustly targeted individuals, including at least two Members of Congress, 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign, a state court judge, protestors and activists on both the right and left, and a local political party.”
Without reauthorization, FISA’s section 702 expires April 19. Still, there is no indication that members of the House Judiciary Committee and members of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the latter of whom proposed separate FISA reform legislation, have managed to hash out their differences to produce one bill that both panels can move forward on.
Lawmakers who signed the letter cited reports that law enforcement agencies nationwide are buying Americans’ data, such as location data and internet activity, from data brokers without a warrant.
The lawmakers called such actions “unacceptable” and violations of the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches.
“According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the kinds of data purchased by law enforcement ‘has increasingly important risks and implications for U.S. person[s’] privacy and civil liberties, as [the data] can reveal sensitive and intimate information about individuals,’” the lawmakers wrote.
The future of the top spy tool used by federal intelligence agencies and the FBI has been in limbo since late last year, when its reauthorization deadline was pushed forward by congressional leadership. At the time, lawmakers could not agree on how much domestic spying authority federal officials can have without a warrant.
“We have the opportunity to reform FISA and protect Americans civil rights and civil liberties by overhauling Section 702 and stopping unwarranted surveillance from intelligence agencies,” said Ms. Jayapal. “Any attempts to extend or expand section 702 will put Americans’ sensitive data at risk. We cannot allow this to happen, and especially not by rushing it through in ‘must-pass’ legislation.”
The lawmakers also touted the House Judiciary Committee’s own bipartisan FISA reform bill, called the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, which was passed out of committee on a 35-2 vote but has yet to make it to the House floor.
“We cannot continue to turn a blind eye to warrantless surveillance in America. Congress has a real opportunity to make critical reforms to the FISA 702 spying authority,” Mr. Biggs said. “For more than a year, our bipartisan coalition worked to find common ground on reforms to protect Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights.”
The Judiciary bill that they support addresses privacy protections of those in the U.S., including requiring the government to obtain a warrant before conducting a search on Americans and prohibiting the government from circumventing the Fourth Amendment by purchasing data from third-party data brokers that would otherwise require a warrant.
But the lawmakers say they are willing to negotiate and compromise on legislation to reauthorize Section 702 as long as “members have an opportunity to vote on whether the government should end warrantless surveillance of Americans and stop circumventing the Fourth Amendment by purchasing sensitive information on Americans from third parties.”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.