Media contact: Mark Stanley, 202-681-7582 Email: press@demandprogress.org
Today 27 bipartisan groups delivered a letter to Congress in support of a proposed amendment from Representatives Ted Poe (R-TX) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) that would address the ‘backdoor search loophole’ under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
The proposed amendment is expected to be offered at Thursday’s House Judiciary Committee markup of the USA Freedom Act.
Specifically, the amendment would prohibit government agencies from collecting and searching the communications of U.S. persons without a warrant using section 702 of FISA, a statute primarily designed to pick up communications of individuals abroad.
The amendment would also prohibit the government from requiring or requesting that any person or entity build backdoors in its products or services that would facilitate electronic surveillance of users.
Last year, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly (293-123) and on a bipartisan basis in favor of a virtually identical measure amending the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for FY 2015.
So-called “reform” bill fails to stop mass surveillance and must be opposed
Media Contact: Mark Stanley, 202-681-7582 Email: press@demandprogress.org
Press reports indicate that, under pressure from the secretive intelligence agencies, legislation is being introduced today that fails to terminate mass surveillance programs, and instead reauthorizes section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act.
We urge Congress to oppose this legislation, the USA Freedom Act, because it does not end mass surveillance programs, including ones operating under the FISA Amendments Act and Executive Order 12333. It also fails to secure other essential reforms, including real accountability for the NSA, addressing secret law, and strengthening meaningful oversight by Congress. The bill will only be weakened as it goes through the legislative process and will become a parody of its name.
A vote for a bill that does not end mass surveillance is a vote in support of mass surveillance. The way to end mass surveillance is to end mass surveillance. Everything else is window dressing.
Rather than reauthorizing section 215, Congress should let this dangerous provision expire and pass much-needed reforms, including ending mass surveillance under section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, Executive Order 12333 and other authorities, and enhancing Congressional oversight of secret intelligence agencies.
CREDO and Demand Progress would support legislation enshrining the reforms demanded in this just-released letter, signed by 60 organizations, businesses, and prominent national security whistleblowers.
Furthermore, the organizations support likely efforts to amend the legislation to ban warrantless wiretapping of U.S. persons.
“It’s like rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic,” said Becky Bond, Vice President of CREDO Mobile. “As a telecom that can be compelled to participate in unconstitutional government surveillance, we can tell you that the latest version of the USA FREEDOM Act is just a diversion to take the heat off our out-of-control surveillance state. That’s why CREDO Mobile opposes this proposal to reauthorize section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act.”
“This bill purports to ban certain acts under narrow authorities — but it doesn’t ban those behaviors outright. Nor does it increase meaningful oversight of the NSA. If there’s one thing we know about the NSA, it’s that it will stretch the law to its limits,” said David Segal, Executive Director of Demand Progress. “If this bill passes, the NSA will continue unaddressed surveillance programs and will secretly torture the English language to devise novel justifications for spying on Americans — we won’t even know the details until a new whistleblower comes forward a decade or two from now.”
“We have a troubling set of circumstances. Secrecy is used to buttress secrecy; the constitutional checks-and-balances have become unraveled. And yet we spend time debating how much to pack into legislation addressing Section 215, the elimination of which would not even end mass surveillance.”
Learn more about Senator Mitch McConnell’s dangerous bill to reauthorize the Patriot Act until 2020 here: http://bit.ly/1JaVqXY
The following statement can be attributed to Demand Progress Executive Director David Segal:
“Senator McConnell’s quixotic effort to extend congressional approval for mass surveillance under the USA PATRIOT Act’s Section 215 is dangerous, foolhardy, and the opposite of what the public has been calling for in the form of meaningful reform. While the Senator and national security hardliners may turn the screws on their colleagues, the American people and most members of Congress will reject this latest effort to transform the land of the free into the home of the surveilled. Grassroots activists will fight McConnell’s bill every step of the way to ensure it never gains the support needed to pass.”
A bipartisan coalition of 60 advocacy groups, whistleblowers, and startups and web companies is calling on Congress to end mass surveillance, strengthen oversight of national security, reinforce whistleblower protections, and bring “secret law” into the sunshine.
Sure, we get it. Making phone calls isn’t for everyone. But they’re the single most important thing you can do to get your message across to members of Congress quickly and easily.
Media contact: Mark Stanley, 682-429-2776 Email: press@demandprogress.org
Washington, DC (April 13, 2015) — The following statement on Representative Doug Collins’s resolution of disapproval for the FCC’s Net Neutrality order can be attributed to David Segal, Executive Director of Demand Progress.
“Doug Collins should think twice before he bucks the will of millions of Americans — and 85% of Republicans — by working to let ISPs shove most websites into slow lanes.
“His resolution is the latest attempt by the Big Cable industry and the members of Congress who do its bidding to roll back protections that will allow the public, innovators, and small businesses to benefit from an open Internet.
“Members of Congress who join this resolution and other legislative attempts to undermine the FCC’s rule will meet strong opposition every step of the way, including from the millions of voters who have spoken out in favor of Net Neutrality and who remain as vigilant as ever when it comes to defending the open Internet.
Here’s some news that should get members of Congress upset. Not only do Americans say the best way to fix it is to fire everyone (but it rarely happens), a new poll has some very specific finger pointing.
The Washington Post-ABC poll shows that 51 percent of voters disapprove of their own member of Congress. In the quarter-century that the Post-ABC has been asking the question, this is the first time it’s ever eclipsed the 50-percent mark. Only 41 percent approve of their own member.
