The Fourth Amendment is Not For Sale Act Flies Through House Judiciary Committee with Key Bipartisan Support

WASHINGTON, D.C. — This morning, the House Judiciary Committee passed the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, key legislation that closes the Data Broker Loophole and ensures Americans’ private data is not sold to the federal government without a warrant.

In response to its passage, Demand Progress Senior Policy Counsel Sean Vitka issued the following statement:

“By passing the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, both Democrats and Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee just made clear that the Data Broker Loophole must and will be closed. This is a major step forward for privacy in the digital age, but among the most significant moments were statements from Chairman Jordan and Representative Lofgren that this will be included in legislation to make major reforms to FISA, which will be considered before the end of the year. 

“Later this year, we’re going to see the biggest fight over warrantless surveillance in generations. The vote today changed the course of this debate. We commend Representatives Jacobs, Jayapal, Lofgren, and Nadler, among others, for their leadership in this defining moment.”

This news builds momentum following the House’s unanimous vote last week in support of the Davidson-Jacobs amendment, which closes the Data Broker Loophole at the Department of Defense and its components, including the NSA, which have been caught buying sensitive location data from Muslim prayer and dating apps and buying location information in bulk.

In addition to the amendment vote last week, a bipartisan group of members demanded transparency about the government’s purchase of sensitive information from data brokers during testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray, which he refused to provide. During today’s hearing, Representative Lofgren revealed that the FBI had not followed up to answer her or other members’ questions about the agency’s warrantless purchase of data.

The vote today also precedes the end-of-the-year debate over potential reauthorization of Section 702, a massive warrantless surveillance authority that has been abused hundreds of thousands of times, including to search for information about protestors, Congressional donors, journalists, and even a sitting member of Congress.

Closing the Data Broker Loophole is one of — if not the most — bipartisan issue in Congress, and the American people overwhelmingly support requiring a warrant before government agencies can obtain this information from data brokers. A Harris Poll from the end of 2020 found “that 77% of Americans believe the government should get a warrant to buy the kind of detailed location information that is frequently purchased and sold on the commercial market by data brokers.“