Congress Must Stop Mass Data Collection for AI Surveillance Before Renewing Government Spying Powers
Washington, D.C. — On Friday, Politico reported that the House will not vote next week on a renewal of the federal government’s controversial and sweeping warrantless surveillance authority, also known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)—a reversal from House Speaker Mike Johnson’s previous plan to ram through a reauthorization without any privacy protections. Demand Progress helped lead a coalition of more than 130 groups asking Congress to prevent warrantless data collection on Americans for AI-powered surveillance before renewing FISA. Demand Progress also helped lead over 90 groups in urging Democratic congressional leaders to avoid following Stephen Miller’s lead on FISA, and recently released a poll showing that only 12 percent of voters, including only 17 percent of Republicans, think Congress should renew FISA without reforms.
The following is a statement from Demand Progress Executive Director Sean Vitka:
“Speaker Johnson is backing away from his plan to ram through a FISA reauthorization vote next week because he knows his members don’t want it and the American people don’t want it. Republicans, Democrats and independents all overwhelmingly want Congress to take serious action to protect privacy—in particular against AI and data brokers—and oppose any efforts to rubberstamp the government’s warrantless mass surveillance powers as-is. Before any vote on reauthorizing FISA, Congress must first enact real protections for Americans’ privacy, in particular by closing the data broker loophole to prevent the government from circumventing the courts and independent oversight through the purchase of Americans’ private location, web browsing and other sensitive information.”