{"id":1970374,"date":"2023-07-12T00:11:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T04:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rep-gaetz-leads-gop-effort-to-abolish-broad-surveillance-authority\/"},"modified":"2023-07-12T00:14:50","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T04:14:50","slug":"rep-gaetz-leads-gop-effort-to-abolish-broad-surveillance-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rep-gaetz-leads-gop-effort-to-abolish-broad-surveillance-authority\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Gaetz spearheads GOP push to eliminate expansive surveillance powers."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frep-gaetz-leads-gop-effort-to-abolish-broad-surveillance-authority%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1970374&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<h2>Republican Effort to Abolish Controversial Surveillance Authority Gains Momentum<\/h2>\n<p>Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is leading a Republican effort in the House to abolish a controversial surveillance authority that is due for reauthorization at the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was enacted by Congress in 2008 as a post-9\/11 measure to bulk up U.S. national security. The provision allows intelligence agencies to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cnn-biden-admin-considering-using-private-firms-to-conduct-warrantless-surveillance-of-u-s-citizens\/\" title=\"CNN: Biden Admin Considering Using Private Firms To Conduct Warrantless Surveillance Of U.S. Citizens\">conduct warrantless surveillance<\/a> of foreigners located outside the United States.<\/p>\n<p>While the law bars the targeting of Americans, it also incidentally collects information on Americans. Warrantless searches of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-the-spike-protein-changing-our-gene-expression\/\" title=\"Is the Spike Protein Changing Our Gene Expression?\">communications collected<\/a> under Section 702 for information on Americans are also allowed in certain circumstances. This practice has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rep-gaetz-leads-gop-effort-to-abolish-broad-surveillance-authority\/\" title=\"Rep. Gaetz spearheads GOP push to eliminate expansive surveillance powers.\">drawn significant civil liberty concerns<\/a> from politicians from both the left and right.<\/p>\n<p>Several reports in recent years have also revealed substantial violations of the privacy rights of American citizens under the program.<\/p>\n<p>Intelligence officials and some members of Congress, however, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/in-depth-lawmakers-split-on-surveillance-authority-reauthorization-amid-doj-fbi-abuses_5336943.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">argue<\/a> that the program, in spite of its abuses, is an important tool for national security, and is merely in need of reform.<\/p>\n<p>Without congressional reauthorization, the measure, which was extended by Congress in 2017, will expire on Dec. 31, 2023.<\/p>\n<p>But Mr. Gaetz, joined by Reps. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) say that the problems with the system and the potential for abuse run too deep, and have called for an end to the program entirely when it sunsets at the end of this year.<\/p>\n<p>A resolution (<a href=\"https:\/\/gaetz.house.gov\/sites\/evo-subsites\/gaetz.house.gov\/files\/evo-media-document\/gaetz-fisa-sunset-702.pdf\">pdf<\/a>) introduced by Mr. Gaetz on Tuesday would abolish the program without an extension at the end of 2023, &#8220;expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that authorities under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 should be allowed to expire.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018Persistent Abuse\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>Last year, it was revealed that the FBI <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/report-shows-fbi-spied-on-3-3-million-americans-without-a-warrant-gop-demands-answers_4487840.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">performed<\/a> more than 3 million warrantless searches of Americans of Section 702 data in 2021. One unnamed member of Congress, which Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/gop-congressman-says-he-believes-fbi-illegally-spied-on-him-under-fisa-authority_5111129.html\">believes<\/a> describes him, was also allegedly spied on under the program the same year.<\/p>\n<p>After these abuses with revealed, the FBI, led by Director Christopher Wray, promised that it would make changes to reduce improper queries under Section 702.<\/p>\n<p>A 2022 court opinion made public earlier this year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/fbi-again-promises-to-stop-unjustly-searching-nsa-data-on-americans_5281238.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">revealed<\/a> that the FBI had made an additional 278,000 improper queries, including domestic queries of Jan. 6 protestors, Black Lives Matter protestors, and nearly 20,000 congressional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/nearly-20000-illegal-queries-of-campaign-donors-by-intel-agencies-draws-bipartisan-anger_5330106.html\">campaign donors.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The FBI said these findings were made before the agency overhauled its system, leading to a significant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/fbi-warrantless-searches-of-americans-dropped-96-percent-in-2022_5230784.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">drop<\/a> in queries and a decline in the number of improper searches, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/fbi-audit-reveals-8000-unjustified-searches-of-americans-communications_5266306.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according<\/a> to a watchdog report.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5367394\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/06\/30\/id5367394-06282023-DSC04957-FBI-1200x800.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/06\/30\/id5367394-06282023-DSC04957-FBI-1200x800.jpg\" alt=\"Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) building in Washington on June 28, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu\/The Epoch Times)\"><br \/>\n  <\/figure>\n<p>For Mr. Gaetz and other lawmakers, the repeated findings of abuse suggest the program is beyond salvaging.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The persistent abuse of Section 702 of FISA underscores the disturbing trend of our federal government being weaponized against its people,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The blatant misuse of warrantless surveillance powers targeting Americans&#8217; communications should not be accepted or reauthorized.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We must uphold national security without sacrificing the constitutional rights of our fellow Americans,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>In the bill, Mr. Gaetz provides a rationale for the decision to sunset the measure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Intelligence Community has not been forthright about its use of section 702 authorities over the 15 years that section 702 has been authorized,&#8221; the resolution states.<\/p>\n<p>Though Section 702 was ultimately reauthorized and signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2017, that bill placed new requirements on the intelligence community (IC), forcing it to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ethics-watchdog-calls-for-probe-into-house-democrat-elaine-luria-for-not-disclosing-corporate-ties\/\" title=\"Ethics Watchdog Calls for Probe into House Democrat Elaine Luria for not Disclosing Corporate Ties\">publicly disclose information<\/a> about its Section 702 queries of Americans.<\/p>\n<p>But after the bill was passed, the IC for 21 months sought to avoid having to meet this requirement. It was only after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)\u2014the secretive FISA watchdog\u2014ruled that the IC had to follow the law as amended in 2017 that the agencies agreed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This Congress is aware of multiple abuses of the section 702 data collection process through released court decisions and aggregated data, which in itself is an adequate basis to sunset the program,&#8221; the resolution states.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI, which has faced constant scrutiny since Republicans took the House, was also called out in the bill.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The FBI itself has conducted 702 queries with callous disregard of the privacy rights of Americans,&#8221; it states.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Gaetz re<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is spearheading a GOP initiative to eliminate a contentious surveillance power set to be renewed this year. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was established in 2008 to enhance U.S. national security following 9\/11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":1970376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1970374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1970374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1970374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1970376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1970374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1970374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1970374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}