| Friend,
You may have heard that Congress just barely avoided a partial government shutdown — and another funding deadline is looming next week. Free Press Action just joined 30+ civil-society organizations urging lawmakers to keep all expansions of domestic government-surveillance powers out of any must-pass funding bills. And we’re specifically calling on Congress to reject any efforts to reauthorize and extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).1
Loopholes in our federal laws enable law enforcement and intelligence agencies like the FBI and NSA to spy on us — our calls, texts, emails, locations, internet histories, even medical data — without any public or judicial oversight. These loopholes allow private companies to buy up troves of our data and sell this information to government agencies — undermining our basic constitutional and due process rights.
We should never allow warrantless surveillance of everyday people in the United States, especially in an era where our digital privacy is deeply tied to reproductive care and the ability to participate in demonstrations absent targeted spying.2 If Congress is going to advance a surveillance package this year, tell lawmakers to get it right: Any bill must protect our Fourth Amendment rights through warrant requirements and must ban purchases of our data through third-party commercial entities.
We need your help! Contact Congress today and tell lawmakers that a reauthorization of domestic spy powers is unacceptable without meaningful reforms.
The FBI and the NSA are harvesting our data and abusing this information for malicious purposes that have nothing to do with national security.3We’ve seen protesters, journalists, judges and others investigated and intimidated because of Section 702 and the data-broker loophole. Congress is rushing to reauthorize and expand this authority when it should be reining it in. Lawmakers know that public opinion is overwhelmingly against them,4 which is why they keep trying to ram this through before we notice — but we always notice. Thank you for defending your basic rights,
Jenna and the rest of the Free Press Action team
freepress.net
P.S. Monitoring this kind of activity on Capitol Hill takes a lot of resources — if you’re able, please chip in $10 or anything you can to make our watchdog efforts possible.
1. “Coalition Letter Urging Congressional Leaders to Keep Section 702 Reauthorization Out of Continuing Resolution,” Brennan Center for Justice, Feb. 29, 2024 2. “Opinion: Before the Feds Surveil Americans for Gaza Protests, Rein in Warrantless Spying,” The Los Angeles Times, Feb. 8, 2024 3. “PCLOB Report Reveals New Abuses of FISA Section 702,” Brennan Center for Justice, Oct. 11, 2023 4. “NEW POLLING: As Mass Surveillance Debate Reaches Final Stages in Congress, Americans Demonstrate Overwhelming Support for Increased Privacy Protections,” Demand Progress Education Fund, Dec. 14, 2023  |
