When the Patriot Act was passed in 2001, and again when the FISA Amendment Act was passed in 2008, several key surveillance powers were supposed to “sunset” in a few years unless Congress voted to reauthorize them. Which Congress has, repeatedly, usually without even introducing significant reforms.
Now it’s the USA Freedom Act’s turn to sunset, on December 15 unless it’s renewed.
As is usually the case in these sunset battles, the administration has proposed making all the authorities permanent; civil liberties advocates have proposed significant reforms; and the likely outcome is somewhere in between. Of course, the impeachment hearings make it hard to predict what’s going to happen — how much energy does anybody have to spend on this? But as I wrote back in 2017
Urgency increases as we get closer to the sunset mechanism’s looming deadline — which in turn often leads to short-term extensions. It’s like watching sausage getting made, although with a lot more scary headlines and phone calls to Congress.
So buckle up! The bulk of this post goes into more detail about the situation, but first a few things you can do right now:
- Tell Congress: Shut down unlawful surveillance is an easy-to-use forms to ask your Congressional representatives not to extend Section 215, sponsored by organizations including Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, and MediaJustice)
- Reform 215 and EFF’s Don’t Renew Section 215 Indefinitely also make it easy to contact Congress.
- If you’re on Twitter, Free Press has made it easy to tweet some key Senate Judiciary Committee members.
As things heat up there will no doubt be plenty of opportunities for grassroots activism. So, stay tuned! You can follow Get FISA Right on Twitter and Facebook, and of course there are plenty of other great organizations working on this issue.
Posted by jdp23 
Get FISA Right 