Exclusive: Rep. Andy Biggs Unveils Amendment to Spy Powers Bill Preventing Warrantless Searches of Americans

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) introduced an amendment to a government surveillance reform bill, necessitating that searches of Americans under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) require a warrant, per the Constitution, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.

Biggs introduced his amendment as the House Rules Committee will consider the rule allowing for a vote on the House floor on the government surveillance reform bill on Thursday.

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Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and Ben Cline (R-VA) cosponsored the amendment.

The bill would reauthorize Section 702 of FISA while offering limited reforms of the controversial surveillance law. Now, Biggs — the sponsor of the House Judiciary Committee-advanced Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, championed as the best reform of Section 702 — proposed an amendment that would ensure that Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights are protected.

The amendment stipulates that:

… no officer or employee of the United States may conduct a query of information acquired under this section for the purpose of finding communications or information the compelled production of which would require a probable cause warrant if sought for law enforcement purposes in the United States, of a United States person. [Emphasis added]

The amendment would also require a “description” of the query to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the Intelligence Committee of Congress, and the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, which oversee matters relating to government surveillance.

Related — Rep. Andy Biggs: CDC Purchased $420k Worth of Data to Surveil Americans During the Coronavirus Pandemic

U.S. House of Representatives

While the government surveillance reform bill may largely mirror the House Intelligence Committee bill, which means that its reforms are more limited in scope than Biggs’ Protect Liberty Act, the Arizona conservative and other members of the House Freedom Caucus are moving to reform the bill with amendments.

Conservatives also wish to see the inclusion of Rep. Warren Davidson’s (R-OH) The Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, which would prohibit law enforcement from purchasing Americans’ private data through data brokers, included in the final bill as well. This is backed by the Gun Owners of America and the National Association for Gun Rights.

Davidson warned that if amendments are not allowed to be considered to the bill, the rule allowing a final vote on the bill could be in “jeopardy.”

Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.