Conservatives, Progressives Demand Amendments During Spy Powers Fight to Curb Surveillance Abuse

Conservatives and progressives are demanding that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) allow for amendments to curb surveillance abuse during next week’s spy powers reauthorization fight.

FreedomWorks, a conservative activist organization, and Demand Progress, a progressive activist group, released statements Friday as Speaker Mike Johnson will seek to find a path to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a controversial law. Section 702 is meant to surveil foreign adversaries; however, intelligence agencies often use the law to spy on Americans in what is considered a run around Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless searches.

Demand Progress and FreedomWorks are just two of the 32 civil liberties groups that sent a letter to congressional leadership on Monday urging them to sink FISA reauthorization if amendments and protections against data collection are not included during the voting process.

FreedomWorks and Demand Progress called on Speaker Johnson to allow for amendments that would require intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant before surveilling Americans, and another amendment that would bar law enforcement agencies from obtaining Americans’ private communications through third-party data brokers.

Watch — Rep. Jim Jordan: Warrants Should be Required for Section 702, Separate but Equal Branch Should Hold Intelligence Agencies Accountable

House Rules Committee

FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon said in a written statement:

Members of Congress don’t need another private, classified briefing from the alphabet soup of the Intelligence Community. Not only is this briefing unnecessary, it’s clearly designed to influence Members ahead of the debate on Section 702 of FISA.

Let me explain. The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA) was introduced after months of negotiations between the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). Although the two groups couldn’t agree on consensus legislation, they agreed to bring the RISAA to the floor with both having the opportunity to offer three amendments. House Judiciary amendments would protect Americans from warrantless searches and third-party data brokers. We are concerned the Intelligence Community will attempt to influence the outcome of amendment votes.

Despite supporting similar surveillance reforms in the past, Speaker Mike Johnson has rolled over for the Intelligence Community. Over three-quarters of Americans recently polled support closing the backdoor loophole for warrantless searches and closing the data broker loophole to prevent the government from purchasing our sensitive information from third-party data brokers. Congressional leadership, including Speaker Johnson, are wildly out of touch with what Americans want.

Watch: Rep. Warren Davidson Calls to Pass Amendment that Bans Pentagon from Circumventing Fourth Amendment

U.S. House of Representatives

In his written statement Demand Progress Policy Director Sean Vitka said:

It speaks volumes that foreign data brokers are pouring cash and lobbyists into stopping Congress from closing the data broker loophole. This is an urgent threat to our Fourth Amendment rights, and it’s all the more alarming that the Congressional Intelligence Committees are lined up behind these foreign interests. Representatives Turner and Himes should disavow these shady companies and stand up against this crusade against their own constituents’ privacy, but they seem to instead be doing the bidding of the data broker industry.

Vitka cited a Politico report that Relx, a U.K.-based data broker company that owns analytics firm LexisNexis, recently hired lobbyists for the FISA fight, as it has previously done to advocate for “looser restrictions on what data brokers can share with law enforcement and other federal agencies.” One of Relx’s subsidiaries is facing a lawsuit following a New York Times report that data firms such as LexisNexis Risk Solutions had provided extensive information about drivers’ behavior to insurance companies, which led to calls for a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation.

The Demand Progress policy director noted that Israeli cyber intelligence firm NSO Group made software that targeted political dissidents, human rights activists, and others:

While dangerous and deeply concerning, this isn’t the first time foreign data brokers have attempted to sabotage surveillance reform in the United States. Just last year, NSO group, purveyor of the infamous Pegasus spyware, hired Stewart Baker, former general counsel for the NSA.

Vitka continued, “The Commerce Department blacklisted the NSO Group in 2021 because it knowingly supplied spyware used by foreign governments to ‘maliciously target’ the phones of dissidents, human rights activists, journalists, and others.”

Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) proposed the First Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, which would bar intelligence agencies from purchasing Americans’ private data in what is often referred to as the “data-broker loophole.” This provision is included in the House Judiciary Committee-advanced FISA reform bill, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, which is sponsored by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ).

“Members of Congress should dismiss these attempts from foreign data brokers to undermine privacy efforts happening in the United States. Over 80% of Americans want to see reform happen to secure our privacy,” Vitka added, “including the closure of the data broker loophole specifically. We should expect that Congress prioritizes the will of their constituents over the demands of foreign data broker giants — but we will know next week.”

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