{"id":1973537,"date":"2023-07-14T19:23:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T23:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawmakers-vow-reforms-to-governments-secretive-surveillance-power\/"},"modified":"2023-07-14T19:27:32","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T23:27:32","slug":"lawmakers-vow-reforms-to-governments-secretive-surveillance-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawmakers-vow-reforms-to-governments-secretive-surveillance-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers pledge to reform secretive surveillance power."},"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\">14<\/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%2Flawmakers-vow-reforms-to-governments-secretive-surveillance-power%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=1973537&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<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0714\/d1b48fe3-8bd4-4646-9ffd-2c925ba75614\/audio.mp3?length=5931693&#038;duration=494\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Law That&#8217;s Gone Too Far: Time for Change<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The law authorizing warrantless searches of data on U.S. citizens by the federal government has been so consistently abused that it must be either thoroughly revised or allowed to expire this year, surveillance and privacy advocates say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA law designed to provide tools to collect foreign intelligence and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/asked-if-u-s-less-safe-with-taliban-holding-u-s-weapons-psaki-says-access-to-global-marketplace-gives-u-s-leverage\/\" title=\"Asked If U.S. Less Safe With Taliban Holding U.S. Weapons, Psaki Says Access To \u2018Global Marketplace\u2019 Gives U.S. Leverage\">prevent terrorist attacks<\/a> has been warped into a domestic spy tool that has been used millions of times over the past three years to target Americans,\u201d said Chair Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said at a July 14 hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>The hearing examined whether the law\u2014Section 702 of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA)\u2014should be revised to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/omarova-refuses-to-rule-out-a-repeat-of-operation-choke-point\/\" title=\"Omarova Refuses to Rule Out a Repeat of Operation Choke Point\">prevent future abuses<\/a> or allowed to sunset.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2295172\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2017\/09\/11\/GettyImages-514174236-1200x813.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tFamilies line up against the edges of the South Memorial pool during 10th-anniversary ceremonies at the site of the World Trade Center on Sept.11, 2011, in New York. (Timothy A. Clary\/AFP\/Getty Images)<br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<p>Witnesses testifying before the subcommittee and the members themselves appeared unanimous in thinking that Congress must take some action on Section 702 to protect the privacy of U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n<p>FISA prescribes procedures for the collection of information by the federal government on U.S. soil.<\/p>\n<p>After the 9\/11 attacks, the law was amended through the Patriot Act to guard against the threat of terrorism in the digital age. It was later amended in response to the 2005 revelation of the Stellar Wind operation, a domestic surveillance operation.<\/p>\n<p>Those amendments established a Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2007, and the addition of Section 702 in 2008 to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawmakers-vow-reforms-to-governments-secretive-surveillance-power\/\" title=\"Lawmakers pledge to reform secretive surveillance power.\">authorize targeted electronic surveillance<\/a> of overseas subjects.<\/p>\n<p>That includes the collection of phone calls, text messages, and emails of foreign nationals overseas\u2014even if those communications involve a U.S. citizen\u2014and the data can then be searched by U.S. agencies in connection with national security investigations.<\/p>\n<p>Under rules approved by the FISC, any search of that data involving a U.S. citizen must be for the purpose of retrieving foreign intelligence information or evidence of a crime, be reasonably designed to avoid unnecessarily retrieving information not related to the purpose and be justified by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nearly-20000-illegal-queries-of-campaign-donors-by-intel-agencies-draws-bipartisan-anger\/\" title=\"20K illegal donor queries by intel agencies anger both parties.\">specific factual basis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Those rules have often been violated.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5092098\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/03\/01\/Biggs-fentanyl-hearing-1200x675.jpeg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tRep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) speaks at a House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee hearing in Washington on March 1, 2023, in a still from video. (House Judiciary Committee Youtube\/Screenshot via NTD)<br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe know that the [National Security Agency] and [Department of Justice] have repeatedly reported the unauthorized use of backdoor searches of the 702 database.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd, as a release from the Brennan Center pointed out, internal oversight measures, hailed as robust, failed to prevent flagrant abuses, including 133 warrantless searches aimed at Black Lives Matter protesters and 19,000 searches for communications to a single congressional campaign,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sen-tom-carper-announces-bill-to-give-d-c-statehood\/\" title=\"Sen. Tom Carper announces bill to give D.C. statehood\">ranking member<\/a> Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas).<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, the FISC found \u201cwidespread violations\u201d of the rules. Those violations included searches for the communications of government officials, journalists, political commentators, and a member of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>FBI Director Christopher Wray implemented procedural changes for FISA queries in 2021 and 2022, which provided a 90 percent improvement in compliance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe bureau is implementing further measures both to keep improving our compliance and to hold our personnel accountable for misuse of Section 702 and other FISA provisions\u2014including through an escalating scheme for employee discipline, culminating in possible dismissal,\u201d Mr. Wray told the House Judiciary Committee on July 12.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not good enough for Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the full Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChairman Biggs and I agree on very little, but here is one place we agree,\u201d Mr. Nadler said at the subcommittee hearing. \u201cWhatever we think of the last administration, whatever we think of the current administration, we cannot count on the next administration to get this right.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to build a Section 702 regime that fully respects our privacy no matter who\u2019s in charge. Not 90 percent. All of our privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Amend or Abandon?<\/h2>\n<p>One option for dealing with the law would be to allow it to sunset. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) favored that option. \u201cThe patient is not saveable,\u201d Mr. Gaetz.<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School, said that was a viable option.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe question is whether Congress feels that these abuses are so serious that you want to use a rule that \u2018If you abuse it, you lose it,\u2019 Mr. Turley said.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that federal agencies have a history of promising to improve compliance without making meaningful changes.<\/p>\n<p>Yet most speakers appeared to favor some version of reform rather than abandonment.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Nadler, who has never voted to renew Section 702, said he would entertain the possibility of doing so if the privacy issues could be adequately addressed.<\/p>\n<p>Gene Schaerr, general counsel at Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability and a former White House counsel, advised against allowing Section 702 to sunset.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou then have a statutory vacuum, which the Executive Branch loves,\u201d Mr. Schaerr said.<\/p>\n<p>If there is no law prohibiting an action, a president is likely to claim the authority to act, he explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd of course, they tend to read presidential authority broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Surveillance and privacy advocates argue that the law permitting warrantless searches of data on U.S. citizens by the federal government has been extensively misused. They believe it should either undergo significant revisions or be allowed to expire this year. Originally intended for foreign intelligence gathering and counterterrorism, it has been distorted beyond recognition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1793,"featured_media":1973538,"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-1973537","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\/1973537","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\/1793"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1973537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1973538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1973537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1973537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1973537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}