Dear Representative,
On behalf of millions of Americans for Prosperity’s activists in all 50 states, I urge you to carefully consider the anticipated votes to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and to oppose H.R. 7888 the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA) absent significant changes.
Passed in 2008 by Congress, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act granted the government greater powers to conduct surveillance of suspected foreign terrorists. However, Section 702 has become a go to resource for the government to access Americans’ communications without the proper protections afforded by a warrant. The FBI conducted up to 200,000 warrantless searches of the communications of American citizens in 2022 alone using the Section 702 database. These abuses are ongoing and will continue unless Congress enacts significant new safeguards.
As the House of Representatives considers reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Americans for Prosperity urges you to support amendments which will end Section 702 abuses by adding critically needed protections for Americans’ civil liberties and oppose amendments which will weaken privacy safeguards and expand warrantless surveillance. We will Key Vote “YES” on final passage of legislation that includes the below amendments to safeguard civil liberties while also excluding the below amendments that expand surveillance, however, we will Key Vote “NO” on final passage of the current base bill or of any version of RISAA that includes the below amendments that expand surveillance.
The base text being brought to the floor known as the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act is misleadingly named. We oppose this proposal because it is not designed to reform the law, but instead at best preserves the status quo and at worst undermines existing privacy protections within FISA. Specifically, the bill undermines existing amicus procedures by limiting the pool of eligible amici to those with intelligence community backgrounds and limiting the range of arguments amici can make to the FISA Court. If Congress passed this bill without the below proposed privacy-minded amendments, it would be signing off on continued abuse of US person queries to spy on Americans, which has included spying on political protestors, donors to a political campaign, and even a sitting Member of Congress.
There will be additional amendments offered that would expand warrantless surveillance even further and threaten the privacy rights of even more Americans. We oppose the following proposed amendments:
Oppose Amendments that Expand Surveillance:
However, we support the following expected amendments that will add significant privacy and civil liberties protections and make the underlying RISSA legislation worth supporting.
Support Amendments that Safeguard Civil Liberties:
Section 702 is a powerful spying tool that is ripe for reform in ensuring the government can identify foreign threats while also safeguarding the Fourth Amendment rights of all Americans. Congress must not pass a bill that reauthorizes Section 702 without including commonsense reforms that will end the abuses within the program. In order to protect your constituents’ right to privacy, we will Key Vote “NO” on final passage of any legislation that fails to include the amendments offered by Representatives Biggs and Cline or that does include the amendments offered by Representatives Turner, Crenshaw and Waltz.
This vote will be recorded in our legislative scorecard. To see what other votes have been included, please visit AFP’s scorecard online at: AFPscorecard.org.
Sincerely,
Brent Gardner
Chief Government Affairs Officer
Americans for Prosperity
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