re: FISA is expanding.

Discussing passage of FiSA renewal a few days ago.

I’m sad—and frankly baffled—to report that the House voted today to reward the government’s widespread abuses of Section 702 by massively expanding the government’s powers to conduct warrantless surveillance. 1/14

The amendment to require the gov’t to obtain a warrant to search Section 702 data for Americans’ communications failed by an achingly close vote of 212-212, following some truly shameless misrepresentations about the amendment from
@MikeTurnerOH
, the White House, & others. 2/14

Opponents branded the notion that the government should need a warrant to read Americans’ communications—the core of the Fourth Amendment and the guiding principle for searching Americans’ private correspondence for more than 200 years—as “extreme.” 3/14

Members whom I previously considered to be civil liberties champions (they know who they are) inexplicably abandoned the principles they have espoused in the past and voted to leave Americans vulnerable to continuing surveillance abuses. 4/14

Check out this list of how members voted. If your representative voted the wrong way, don’t be quiet about it. Look up their office phone number (it’s easy), give them a call, and let them know how you feel about their disregard of your rights. 5/14 LINK

That’s bad enough. But the House also voted for the amendment many of us have been calling “Patriot Act 2.0.” This will force ordinary American businesses that provide wifi to their customers to give the NSA access to their wifi equipment to conduct 702 surveillance. 6/14

I’m not kidding. The bill actually does that. If you have any doubts, read this post by a FISA Court amicus, who took the unusual step of going public to voice his concerns. Too bad members of the House didn’t listen. 7/14

Next time you pull out your phone and start sending messages in a laundromat… or a barber shop… or in the office building where you work… just know that the NSA might very well have access to those communications. 8/14

And that’s not all. The House also passed an amendment authorizing completely suspcionless searches for the communications of non-U.S. persons seeking permission to travel to the U.S., even if the multiple vetting mechanisms already in place reveal no cause for concern. 9/14

In addition to people seeking to work, study, or travel in the U.S., this could affect large numbers of visa holders who are longtime U.S. residents but still need permission to re-enter the U.S. when returning from travel overseas. 10/14

The only purpose this provision serves is to signal to people overseas who are seeking permission to enter this country, as well as people who are here on visas the United States has issued, that they are not welcome. (Oh... and to spy on them.) 11/14

There are more bad things in this bill—a needless expansion of the definition of “foreign intelligence,” provisions that weaken the role of amici in FISA Court proceedings, special treatment for members of Congress—but it would take too many tweets to cover them all. 12/14

The Senate should not pass this bill. The government already obtained approval from the FISA Court to conduct Section 702 surveillance until April 25. According to the administration, that approval will stay in place even if Section 702 lapses. 13/14

That means there is NO RUSH. It’s critical that Congress get this right. The House got it massively, egregiously wrong. It must be fixed in the Senate, however long it takes. Please call your senators and urge them not to pass this disgraceful bill. 14/14