Surveillance

Scott Shackford | 11.7.2023 1:20 PM

A bipartisan collection of privacy-minded lawmakers today announced the introduction of a bill that would reform and restrain the authorities of federal agencies from snooping on American citizens and collecting data without getting a warrant first.

Federal surveillance authorities under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) are up for congressional renewal this year. Section 702 is intended to authorize the warrantless surveillance of foreigners outside of the United States for potential threats to national security. But in truth, through various loopholes and tricks, these authorities have been used by the federal government to collect and track domestic data and communications by American citizens, without us knowing and without warrants.

We've had years of evidence that federal intelligence authorities like the National Security Agency (NSA) have been misusing their powers and a number of legislative attempts to rein them in. Today, a pack of lawmakers introduced the Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023, intended to add several new restrictions to protect Americans from warrantless snooping and collection of data as a condition of renewing Section 702.

The law is co-sponsored in both the House and Senate by privacy- and liberty-minded lawmakers from both parties, from Sen. Ron Wyden (D–Ore.) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D–Calif.) on the left to Sen. Mike Lee (R–Utah) and Rep. Nancy Mace (R–S.C.) on the right, among others.

"The FISA Court and the Director of National Intelligence have confirmed that our government conducted warrantless surveillance of millions of Americans' private communications," said Lee in a prepared statement. "It is imperative that Congress enact real reforms to protect our civil liberties, including warrant requirements and statutory penalties for privacy violations, in exchange for reauthorizing Section 702. Our bipartisan Government Surveillance Reform Act stops illegal government spying and restores the Constitutional rights of all Americans."

Their bill addresses and attempts to end a host of different ways that federal authorities have attempted to make end runs around the Fourth Amendment's requirements that officials get a warrant before accessing Americans' private data or communications. Some of the important reforms include:

And there's more to the full bill, which can be read here. It is chock full of changes to surveillance authorities that some lawmakers have been trying to pass for years now, in exchange for a four-year renewal of Section 702.

As such, the bill also has support from civil rights and privacy groups from across the political spectrum, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the National Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers, FreedomWorks, Restore the Fourth, the Due Process Institute, and many others.

"We have said again and again that Section 702 should not be reauthorized absent fundamental reforms, said Kia Hamadanchy, a senior policy council at the ACLU, in a prepared statement. "The Government Surveillance Reform Act meets this high standard. This legislation would address the countless abuses of Section 702 we have seen from the government, and it would ensure the protection of Americans' Fourth Amendment rights. Congress should not vote to reauthorize Section 702 without the critical reforms contained in this bill."