A FISA vote coming this week – UPDATED

April 8, 2024

UPDATE: On Tuesday, the House Rules Committee decided what amendments will be voted on – including a new disastrously bad amendment. So I’ve updated the post. There’s a new script at the bottom — if you’ve already contacted Congress, thanks, and please do so again. If you haven’t now would be a very good time to!

The clock is ticking: FISA Section 702’s authority for warrantless surveillance expires on April 19 it’s reauthorized. For the last few months, a bipartisan coalition of reformers have been focusing on two key improvements: adding a warrant requirement, and preventing intelligence agencies from end-running around the warrant requirement by buying data from data brokers. But the intelligence agencies, and surveillance hawks in both parties, are trying to get FISA reauthorized without significant reforms — and even expanad surveillance. Originally there was supposed to be a vote in December; it got postponed until February, and then postponed again.

Now, the plan is to vote in the House this week. The bill going to the floor doesn’t have any signifciant reforms (it actually weakens) oversight, but there will be a vote on an amendment to add a warrant requirement. Unfortunately there will also be a vote on an amendment that would significantly expand FISA’s scope; Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing: A Planned Amendment to This Week’s Vote Would Be the Largest Expansion of FISA in Over 15 Years has the details

Which means that RIGHT NOW is a great time to contact your Representative. You can either call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the House directories to look up your legislators’ contact info. Here’s a short script:

“Stop the FBI from expanding warrantless surveillance of innocent Americans. OPPOSE the FISA amendment from Reps. Turner and Himes, which would be the largest expansion of FISA since Section 702 was created in 2008. And please oppose any attempt to reauthorize FISA Section 702 that doesn’t include warrant requirements, both for Section 702 data and for our sensitive, personal information sold to the government by data brokers.”

Things are likely to continue to change, so check back frequently! Dell Cameron of Wired is doing frequent updates in The Future of America’s Biggest Spy Program Is Being Decided Right Now.

#FISA #privacy #surveillance #Section702

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by jdp23

Oppose extending FISA in the NDAA!

December 12, 2023

Last night, House Republican leadership decided not to go ahead with votes on the two FISA reauthorization bills. Instead, they’re now planning to attach an extension to the must-pass NDAA — effectively extending FISA until 2025.* See this letter from dozens of civil rights and racial justice groups opposing extending FISA in the NDAA for why that’s a bad idea.

Fortunately, there’s enough opposition to FISA extension in both parties that there’s still a chance to stop it. Here’s how you can help.

  • Contact your Senators TODAY and with a simple ask: “DO NOT put 702 in the NDAA.”
  • Once you’ve done that, contact your representative with the same ask: “DO NOT put 702 in the NDAA.”

You can either call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the Senate and House directories to look up your legislators’ contact info.

#FISA #Section702 #surveillance

* technically, the extension is for four months, until April 2024. But the FISA court approves cerfifications for a year, so any surveillance approved in early 2024 will continue until 2025.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by jdp23

Stop the surveillance power grab. Tell Congress to OPPOSE HPSCI’s Horrific Surveillance Bill and SUPPORT real reforms!

December 10, 2023

FISA Section 702’s authority for warrantless surveillance expires at the end of the year unless it’s reauthorized.  With Congress leaving DC on December 15, there’s a lot of action this week — including competing Section 702 surveillance bills on collision path in the House, two bills in the Senate as well, and perhaps an attempt to add as short-term extension to the most-path NDAA bill. So now’s a critical time to contact Congress!

Both bills are scheduled for a floor vote this week, so now’s a crucial time to contact Congress! Several organizations have pages that make it easy to contact your legislators, along with talking points

Or if you’d rather contact legislators yourself …

The House of Representatives’ switchboard is at 202-225-3121; if you’re not sure who your representative is you can look them up here.

“Please OPPOSE H.R. 6611, the “FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act” (FRRA) and any attempt to include a short-term extension of Section 702 in the NDAA. Please SUPPORT H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act (PLEWSA). FRRA not only fails to reform FISA, it actually broadens mass surveillance authorities. We’ve seen too many examples of unchecked, warrantless surveillance of Americans. FISA Section 702 must not be reauthorized without significant reforms – and PLEWSA has support from legislators in both parties.”

And the Senate switchboard is at 202-224-3121.

“Please OPPOSE any attempt to include a short-term extension of FISA Section 702 in the NDAA, and please OPPOSE S.3351 – FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023. Instead, please SUPPRT S. 3234, the Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023, and SUPPORT H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act (PLEWSA). FRRA not only fails to reform FISA, it actually broadens mass surveillance authorities. We’ve seen too many examples of unchecked, warrantless surveillance of Americans. FISA Section 702 must not be reauthorized without significant reforms – and GSRA and PLEWSA has support from legislators in both parties.”

More info:

#FISA #Section702 @privacy

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by jdp23

Get FISA Right has entered the fediverse!

November 8, 2023

We’re heading into a busy time for FISA activism. FISA Section 702 expires in December 2023 unless Congress re-authorizes it, and the just-introduced bi-partisan Government Surveillance Reform Act (GSRA) combines significant FISA reforms with other important protections.

And conveniently enough, WordPress now makes it easy to connect blogs to the fediverse, an decentralized ecosystem social networks. If you’ve got a Mastodon account, you should be able to follow us at @getfisaright@getfisaright.net

A lot of people in the fediverse are passionate and knowledgable about privacy and civil liberties … and because FISA affects “non-US persons” as well as Americans, it’s something that’s likely to have broad interest. Of course, as Privacy activism on Mastodon and in the fediverse discusses, there are also some barriers to activism in the fediverse, so we’ll see how well it works out … but @rt4@campaign.openworlds.info @eff and other civil liberties groups are already there, so it’s worth a try!

#FISA #GSRA

A checkmark, followed by the words Get FISA Right has entered the fediverse

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by jdp23

A Note from Restore the Fourth

December 11, 2022

Recently, I was pleased to see an e-mail from Restore the Fourth show up in my in-box. They have been active in protecting us from unreasonable search and seizure (text of the amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ”)

Here’s what they say in the new e-mail:

We’re working on our New Year’s resolutions for protecting Fourth Amendment rights.

In 2023, lovers of freedom have a major opportunity. One of the key laws authorizing mass surveillance, Section 702 of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, is set to expire. If Congress does not act, the NSA will be deprived of statutory authority for surveillance of “US-to-foreign” communications. Its vast dragnet “incidentally” captures the communications of millions of Americans without a warrant. Then, the FBI accesses that database without a warrant, for domestic law enforcement purposes, performing over 3 million searches each year. These “backdoor searches” circumvent the Fourth Amendment and permit mass domestic surveillance.

We can stop this—but we need your help.

Founded after the Snowden revelations of 2013, Restore the Fourth has already helped secure the sunset of another surveillance law, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, in 2020. The last time Section 702 was up for debate, we secured some transparency reforms. Now, with greater bipartisan support for surveillance reform, we can go further. It’s time FISA went back to authorizing surveillance on an individual, not a mass, basis. It’s time the FBI got a warrant for searches on Americans—and it’s time for the NSA and FBI to come clean, to Congress and the public, about the real scale of what they’re doing. You deserve privacy in your communications and your browsing, instead of a government agent looking over your shoulder at everything you do.

We’ll be talking with folks from Restore the Fourth to see how folks can help—they are looking for both donations and volunteers, so check back here and on their own site. These issues never completely go away; we win some battles, but so do those who would ignore our rights. As the saying goes, “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”, so please join us and Restore the Fourth and keep watching, keep speaking out, and keep sharing information with your friends and colleagues.

1 Comment | Section 702 | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by sallijane

Call the Rules Committee Tonight!

June 13, 2016

I got an e-mail from Fight for the Future an hour or two ago (they were still answering the phone when I called), asking for a quick phone call to tell the Congressional Rules Committee, which will be voting on FISA amendments, to take another step toward restoring the privacy that we once had.

Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/2ffltx; Decide the Future gives the phone number to call, asking that we let the committee know that we support the Massie-Lofgren Amendment to defund mass surveillance under Section 702 of FISA.  The group that created this blog have been asking the president, Congress, anyone who will listen to “GetFISARight” for almost a decade now—through President Obama’s full 8-year administration (we grew out of a My Barack Obama group opposed to the then-senator’s support for warrantless wiretapping in July 2008), so don’t stop now!  Pick up the phone, make the call, and Tweet the link!

Defund the NSA

Leave a Comment » | Getting FISA right, NSA, updates | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by sallijane

So we have been silent. . .

February 12, 2014

. . . but that does not mean that we are not aware of what is happening, fighting on our own. Speaking for myself, I came here a couple of days ago to figure out how to put up the banner for “The Day We Fight Back”, yesterday (ugh!) and failed miserably—tech challenged. My time would have been better spent writing a post, as I am doing now.

The letter that was sent by those who clicked on the links presented in that banner hit on various Internet issues, including our own FISA, but also SOPA, the TPP, etc.

I hope everyone has been following the TPP information—TransPacific Partnership. It seems that, from what has been leaked/reported about these secret negotiations, the main elements of SOPA—the Stop Online Piracy Act that was defeated by public outcry last year—are included in the TPP. This takes it out of U.S.A. jurisdiction, makes it global and gives our government a pass—they can say that their hands are tied, they are just following the international agreement. Please, get involved—there are weekly conference calls on Sundays, “TPP Tuesday” Twitter storms weekly, and probably more where you live.
Yes, we still care—we are also very busy, but let’s all find a bit of time to keep abreast of these issues, and communicate wherever we are.

Leave a Comment » | Getting FISA right, NSA, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by sallijane

#restorethe4th roundup: resources, media attention, and videos

July 1, 2013

RestoreThe4thAs we head into the July 4 rallies, I thought it would be useful to collect some useful links.

For organizers — or people wanting to get the word out — the best place to start is Restore the Fourth’s website at restorethefourth.net, where there’s a a FAQ, list of protests, , the June 18 press release, and a resources page (including logos, flyers, and guides for organizers on media and outreach).  There’s also a wiki page with more resources on Reddit; and of course r/RestoreTheFourth subreddit which is the best place to go for links, questions, and discussions.  Bill of Rights Defense Committee’s How to protest against NSA surveillance on Fourth of July and the reddit threads on first-time protestors and  talking points all have great tips, tricks, and general advice.

The rallies are starting to get more and more attention. For example:

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | Restore the Fourth | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by jdp23

NSA Gathers Far More Than Phone Data (Julian Sanchez)

June 19, 2013

FISA expert Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute discusses internet metadata and more.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by jdp23

Why The FISA Court Is Not What It Used To Be

June 18, 2013

Why The FISA Court Is Not What It Used To Be

Few if any experts in the Bush or Obama administrations believe that the FISA court has the enforcement teeth it once had. Many of those teeth were pulled out by the 2001 Patriot Act and the 2008 amendments to the foreign intelligence surveillance law. For good or ill, as one expert put it, the court has been defanged, at least until and unless Congress decides to restore some of its powers.

Good article by Nina Totenberg of NPR.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by jdp23

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »