Defund the Snoop State

The House of Representatives will soon consider the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill (HR 4505). Republicans Thomas Massie (KY-04) and Warren Davidson (OH-08) are joining Democrats Zoe Lofgren (CA-19) and Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) in offering an amendment to HR 4505 prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds to conduct warrantless wiretapping of American citizens conducted under Section 702 of the FISA Act. Section 702 was intended to allow limited surveillance of non-citizens, but government agents have used loopholes in the law to turn Section 702 into a blanket authorization for mass surveillance and warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. Section 702 has been referred to as the “crown jewel” of the surveillance state… Defunding Section 702 would be a huge step forward in our efforts to roll back the surveillance state. The first step in stopping taxpayer money from being used for Section 702 warrantless wiretapping is making sure the House Rules Committee allows the amendment to be debated and voted on by the full House. The Rules Committee is meeting to determine which of the submitted amendments to HR 4505 will be considered by the full House on Tuesday, July 27, at 2:00 pm. Rules is often referred to as “the Speaker’s Committee” because members of the majority party vote the way the Speaker want. The key to getting this amendment through Rules is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern (D-MA), and Rules Committee Ranking Member Tom Cole (R-OK) to support it. So please call Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy, Chairman McGovern, and Ranking Member Cole and tell them to make sure the House gets to vote on the Massie-Lofgren-Davidson-Jayapal Amendment Defunding the Snoop State! You can reach them here: Speaker Pelosi – 202-225-4965 Leader McCarthy-202-225-2915 Chairman McGovern—202-225-6101 Ranking Member Cole—202-225-6165 Campaign for Liberty has signed onto a collation letter supporting the amendment that details how the FBI uses Section 702 to justify ignoring its own guidelines, written law, and the Constitution to spy on Americans: “Recently released opinions by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) underscore the need for a warrant requirement to protect the privacy of those whose communications are “incidentally” collected. According to one opinion, the FBI, over the course of one year, conducted three million queries of a single database containing Section 702 communications, most of which presumably were U.S. person queries in light of the FBI’s primarily domestic mission. Although Congress has required the FBI to obtain a FISC order for a small subset of these queries, the FISC found that the FBI has literally never complied with this statutory requirement and has violated it on at least dozens of occasions. Moreover, the FBI’s own court-approved procedures place some limits on queries, yet several recent FISC decisions found that FBI agents simply ignore those rules in a shocking number of cases, conducting queries when they have no reason to believe it would return foreign intelligence or evidence of a crime. Agents queried Section 702 data to find the communications of people who came to the FBI to perform repairs; victims who reported crimes; and business, religious, and community leaders applying to participate in the FBI’s “Citizens Academy.” In a move that has disturbing echoes of the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records, agents have also conducted so-called “batch queries,” such as one that swept in the 70,000 people who have authorized access to FBI facilities.” With the Biden administration working with Big Tech to crack down on “domestic extremism” can anyone doubt the FBI and other federal agencies will increase their use of Section 702 to snoop on those of us who advocate opposition to vaccine passports and mandates, protecting the Second Amendment, and Auditing and Ending the Fed? That is why we must do all we can to support this amendment and defund the snoops! So please call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Rules Committee Chair James McGovern, and Ranking Member Tom Cole and tell to make sure the House gets to vote on the Massie-Lofgren-Davidson-Jayapal amendment! You can reach them here: Speaker Pelosi – 202-225-4965 Leader McCarthy-202-225-2915 Chairman McGovern—202-225-6101 Ranking Member Cole—202-225-6165