Bipartisan SAFE Act Curbs Warrantless Government Spying
Washington, D.C. — On Monday, Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced legislation that would require intelligence officials to get a warrant or court approval before accessing the results of backdoor searches of Americans’ private communications. This sweeping spying authority, also known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is set to expire next month on April 20 if Congress does not reauthorize it. Last week, Politico reported that White House Adviser Stephen Miller is pushing for an extension of Section 702 without reforms because he deems it “critical to a variety of homeland security missions.” Demand Progress has been leading a bipartisan coalition to reform Section 702 under both Democratic and Republican presidents.
The following is a statement from Demand Progress Senior Policy Advisor Hajar Hammado:
“Right now, the government can freely troll through your private emails and texts swept up in 702 collections and this power has been abused to spy on everyday Americans, journalists and even members of Congress. No government, whether it’s run by Donald Trump and Stephen Miller or Joe Biden, should be able to do this. The SAFE Act is a bipartisan solution to this problem and all members of Congress should not support reauthorization without these critical reforms. We thank Sens. Lee and Durbin for their leadership on this bill and for modeling how Republicans and Democrats can come together to stop oppressive government overreach.”