REPS ANDY HARRIS, KEITH SELF, SEN RICK SCOTT: Fix FISA. Don’t spy on us
America’s founding generation did not take up arms merely over unreasonable taxation. They understood ceding their rights to the government for promise of security was a bad deal. They believed risking death to live free was better than subsisting under tyranny.
They fought back against unchecked tyranny across an ocean. The crown planted spies in their taverns, rifled through their papers without cause and intercepted their private correspondence.
Today, unchecked deep-state bureaucrats are treating themselves as kings, putting their interests ahead of American liberty.
The "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act" (FISA) has decomposed into a modern incarnation of the general warrants and writs of assistance that ignited our American Revolution. Created as a tool to track foreign threats, FISA has evolved into a domestic surveillance machine: sweeping up Americans’ communications, hiding behind secret courts and treating the Fourth Amendment like a roadblock instead of the supreme law of the land.
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The rattlesnake on the Gadsden flag is issuing a new warning: Don’t Spy on Me.
On June 12, our colleagues in Congress will face another deadline to renew a key FISA authority, Section 702. The intelligence community wants a "clean" reauthorization without changes to its unconstitutional infrastructure. However, the American people expect us to reassert American liberty. That is why some members of the House Freedom Caucus and the Senate Steering Committee have made it clear that meaningful reforms are the only pathway to a long-term extension here.
This position is not opposed to national security. It is a refusal to sacrifice American liberty on the altar of unchecked power.
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We can start by addressing the expansion of the term "electronic communication service provider." Two years ago, the government broadened its surveillance fishing tool to include everyday Americans. Intelligence officials wanted access to one specific company. Instead, they rammed through sweeping language that now lets the National Security Agency (NSA) compel any U.S. business or organization with a computer, router or server to hand over communications. That includes your local hardware store, community center, and, yes, your neighborhood church.
This is not an incidental collection. It is an expansion of the government’s reach, increasing the volume of Americans’ communications available for capture and the potential for abuse. Former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner – a Democrat – acknowledged the domestic surveillance infrastructure on the Senate floor and promised a fix, but Congress has yet to deliver. This must be corrected.
Next, we should unshroud the secrecy that enables current problems with FISA. Federal prosecutors routinely impose indefinite nondisclosure orders on telecom companies to prevent the public from seeing how extensive their domestic espionage operation is. The "NDO Fairness Act" would add judicial review and time limits on these gag orders. Americans deserve to know when their data is being sought, especially outside national security cases.
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The American people also expect us to crack down on federal agencies evading constitutional protections by buying Americans’ data from commercial brokers. This includes geolocation data, communications metadata and browsing history. If government officials need to know, they can ask a judge to issue a warrant. Just because it’s become normalized, doesn’t make it normal. We can and must close this loophole.
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Still, the most alarming problem is the millions of "backdoor" queries of Americans’ communications conducted without warrants. At the peak in 2021 under the Biden administration, there were nearly 3 million warrantless searches of Americans in 702 data, 278,000 of which were conducted improperly. Yet, not a single person was held accountable.
While our government should monitor bad actors overseas seeking to harm our homeland, searches of U.S. persons’ data on American soil should require the constitutional requirements of probable cause and a warrant from a court, with narrow exceptions for imminent threats.
When the Constitution was written, no one could see the digital future the country would grow to lead. However, the principles don’t change. If you needed a warrant to intercept a letter carried by a courier or to enter a home in the 18th century, what makes an email or a smartphone fair game? Technology changes, but the Constitution remains.
As June 12 approaches, Congress must reject another rubber-stamp renewal. The rattlesnake is rattling – its warning clear. The American people expect us to fix this.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM RICK SCOTT
Republican Rick Scott represents Florida in the United States Senate. He is a former Florida governor.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM KEITH SELF
Republican Keith Self represents Texas's 3rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives