Will Congress renew warrantless searches on April 20th?
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), standing, pointing, and Rep. Andy Boggs (R-AZ)
https://cyberscoop.com/house-passes-extension-of-expiring-surveillance-authorities/
Members of the House Judiciary Committee will meet on Friday at 11 a.m. MST in Phoenix, Arizona, in Room SHR109 of the Arizona State Senate.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) will be hosting the event.
They will discuss the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance against the "data-broker loophole."
The loophole allows data brokers to spy on American citizens on behalf of federal spy agencies like the FBI and NSA.
They have been using the loophole to surveil citizens without warrants for 40 years.
It is a byproduct of HR 4952, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/99th-congress/house-bill/4952
Data brokers include but are not limited to:
telecommunications companies like Verizon and AT&T
landlords, and
data centers.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7888
On April 20th, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) expires.
Will Congress let it expire, or renew it with the data-broker loophole?
Or will it need to pass a separate law to close the loophole, like H.R.4639, the proposed Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act?
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/4639
Later this month, the House Judiciary Committee will reintroduce the FISA bill under a different name.
It is called S3234, the Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/3234/all-actions?overview=closed#tabs
During a Jan. 28 Senate Judiciary hearing, the Committee highlighted these events to justify the need for a warrant:
Batch Queries: In one instance, an FBI analyst ran a single query on 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign.
Political Targeting: Declassified documents revealed improper surveillance on a U.S. Senator, a state senator, and a state judge.
Protester Surveillance: The FBI assigned 5000 agents to surveil 133 people arrested for the Jan. 6th Capitol murders and riots. As a result, the FBI spied on 20,000 citizens who had no "foreign intelligence" or were nowhere near the Capitol on Jan. 6.
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