THERE WILL BE SENATE VOTES ON SECTION 702 TODAY. Please call this number (202-899-8938) ASAP to be connected to your Senators and urge them to vote “NO” on RISAA, which contains a “terrifying” provision (@RonWyden) that will force U.S. businesses to serve as NSA spies. 1/9 For more background on this provision, see my op-ed in the Hill yesterday…2/9 thehill.com/opinion/techno…

URGENT: PLEASE KEEP THE CALLS COMING! Call this number (202-899-8938) ASAP to be connected to your Senators and urge them NOT to pass RISAA, which contains a “terrifying” provision (@RonWyden) that will force U.S. businesses to serve as NSA spies. 1/12 For more background on this provision, see my tweet thread from yesterday. The top line is that it would allow the NSA to compel a huge range of U.S. business and individuals to serve as surrogate spies. 2/12

https://twitter.com/LizaGoitein/status/1779885123363635572

URGENT: Please read thread below. We have just days to convince the Senate NOT to pass a “terrifying” law (@RonWyden) that will force U.S. businesses to serve as NSA spies. CALL YOUR SENATOR NOW using this call tool (click below or call 202-899-8938). 1/25 act.demandprogress.org/call/no-on-sec… Buried in the Section 702 reauthorization bill (RISAA) passed by the House on Friday is the biggest expansion of domestic surveillance since the Patriot Act. Senator Wyden calls this power “terrifying,” and he’s right. 2/25

https://twitter.com/RonWyden/status/1778864936573100445

I’m sad—and frankly baffled—to report that the House voted today to reward the government’s widespread abuses of Section 702 by massively expanding the government’s powers to conduct warrantless surveillance. 1/14 The amendment to require the gov’t to obtain a warrant to search Section 702 data for Americans’ communications failed by an achingly close vote of 212-212, following some truly shameless misrepresentations about the amendment from @MikeTurnerOH, the White House, & others. 2/14

The House will vote on Section 702 TOMORROW MORNING. If you think warrantless surveillance should be reined in rather than massively expanded, PLEASE USE THIS CALL TOOL ASAP (click below or call 202-899-8938) & leave a message if you get VM. 1/21 act.demandprogress.org/call/no-on-sec… The base bill is the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA). As the @BrennanCenter has explained, this bill would do nothing to prevent abuses of Section 702, and it would actually weaken the FISA Court’s oversight of surveillance. 2/21 brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…

The House just voted against the rule that would have brought Section 702 legislation to the floor tomorrow. This puts Section 702 itself in jeopardy—something that could easily have been avoided if surveillance hawks were willing to entertain reasonable reforms. 1/17 The purpose of 702 is to collect intelligence on non-U.S. persons abroad; that is where its value overwhelmingly lies. But the gov’t uses it to spy on Americans through “backdoor searches,” a practice that undermines the 4th Amendment and has scant national security value. 2/17

Buried in the Section 702 reauthorization bill that the House will consider this week (RISAA) is a provision that could result in the *permanent* reauthorization of this deeply-flawed authority—without a single reform. 1/11 Here’s how. FISA currently includes a sunset date of April 19 for all of Title VII of FISA. Title VII includes Section 702, but it also includes other provisions (Sections 703, 704, and 705) that contain vital protections for Americans located outside the United States. 2/11

.@SpeakerJohnson has caved to the House Intelligence Committee’s bush league tactics and will block votes on a key reform when Section 702 reauthorization goes to the House floor this week. 1/12 politico.com/newsletters/pl… The base bill that the House will consider—the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA)—contains no meaningful reforms. In fact, the bill would actually weaken the FISA Court’s oversight of surveillance. 2/12 brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…

If you care about the First Amendment, please stop everything and read this @WIRED article. Tl;dr: House intelligence committee (HPSCI) members are blocking reforms to FISA Section 702 *because they want the FBI to spy on American protesters.* 1/20 wired.com/story/hpsci-us… A bit of background (skip to tweet 10 if you’re up to speed on 702!): Section 702 authorizes warrantless surveillance and therefore can only be targeted at foreigners overseas. But it inevitably sweeps in enormous volumes of Americans’ communications. 2/20

Yesterday, I tweeted about how House intelligence committee leaders (HPSCI) scuttled a floor vote on Section 702 rather than allow members to enact reforms. That’s bad behavior, even by Congress’s standards. It turns out it was worse than I thought. 1/13

https://twitter.com/LizaGoitein/status/1757903781868564607

In what may seem like unrelated news (bear with me, I will get back to 702!), HPSCI Chairman Mike Turner caused a near-panic this week when he called for a secret session of Congress to share classified information about a “destabilizing foreign military capability”… 2/13

Some jaw-dropping news: House intelligence committee (HPSCI) leaders forced Speaker Johnson to CANCEL THE FLOOR VOTE on Section 702 tomorrow, rather than allow members to vote on whether to prohibit warrantless access to Americans’ communications. 1/18 HPSCI leaders have been waging a propaganda campaign all week to try to tank this and other reforms… but it’s not working. They saw the writing on the wall. In HPSCI’s view, if members won’t vote the way HPSCI tells them to on Section 702, they shouldn’t get to vote at all. 2/18

Reporting from @politico suggests House intelligence committee leaders want at least part of the floor debate on Section 702 to happen IN SECRET. If true, these are bush league tactics and a new low for opponents of surveillance reform. 1/8

https://x.com/jordainc/status/1756825690786124038?s=61&t=FWdPjolLEsKsBy4p9r91ow

Most lawmakers want major reform of Section 702. The Judiciary Committee’s reform bill passed out of committee on a 35-2 vote. Intelligence committee leaders know they can’t win on an even playing field, so they’re trying to use secrecy to avoid reform. 2/8

I’m sorry to report that lawmakers caved to abject fearmongering by the administration & surveillance hawks in Congress and passed a de facto 16-month extension of Section 702 as part of the NDAA this morning. 1/5 Those of you who called your senators and representatives in the last couple of days—THANK YOU. Your calls did make a difference. The vote was much closer, especially in the Senate, than a lot of observers expected it to be. 2/5

If you believe the government should have to get a warrant to read Americans’ communications, CALL YOUR SENATORS AND TELL THEM “NO SECTION 702 EXTENSION ON THE NDAA WITHOUT A CERTIFICATION CAP.” What does that mean? I’ll explain. 1/15 Section 702 authorizes warrantless surveillance of foreigners abroad, but it sweeps in huge volumes of Americans’ communications, and the gov’t routinely searches through the data for the express purpose of finding and reviewing Americans’ phone calls, texts, and emails. 2/15

RED ALERT: Buried in the House intelligence committee’s Section 702 “reform” bill, which is schedule for a floor vote as soon as tomorrow, is the biggest expansion of surveillance inside the United States since the Patriot Act. 1/11 Through a seemingly innocuous change to the definition of “electronic service communications provider,” the bill vastly expands the universe of U.S. businesses that can be conscripted to aid the government in conducting surveillance. 2/11

Senate intelligence committee (SSCI) leaders have introduced a bill to reauthorize FISA Section 702 *until 2035.* Although it claims to include “reforms,” the bill would actually do more to expand Section 702 surveillance than rein it in. 1/22 therecord.media/senate-section… Background (skip the next 3 tweets if you’re up to speed!): Section 702 authorizes warrantless surveillance, so it can only be targeted at foreigners abroad. But the surveillance inevitably sweeps in vast quantities of Americans’ communications. 2/22

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board’s long-awaited Section 702 report is out. Top line: the report recommends case-by-case judicial approval before accessing Americans’ communications collected under Section 702. 1/20 documents.pclob.gov/prod/Documents… The administration has argued that individualized judicial review of U.S. person queries is unworkable and unnecessary. I’m sure officials deluged PCLOB members with classified briefings and documents to try to make their case. 2/20

Today, the government released a redacted version of the FISA Court’s April 2023 opinion approving Section 702 surveillance. The opinion provides yet more reasons why Congress should not reauthorize this dangerous authority without sweeping reforms. 1/15 intel.gov/assets/documen… To recap, 702 allows warrantless surveillance and thus can only be targeted at foreigners abroad. But it inevitably sweeps in enormous volumes of Americans’ communications, which the government then deliberately searches for without obtaining a warrant. 2/15

The Supreme Court today struck down Biden’s student loan forgiveness program in a decision that calls into question the very rationale for presidential emergency powers… although how consistently the Court will apply this to future emergency actions remains to be seen. 1/15 As I wrote in the @washingtonpost, I believe Biden’s program was a misuse of emergency powers because emergency powers are not meant to provide long-term solutions to longstanding problems (like student loan debt). 2/15 washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…

The FBI’s Office of Internal Audits (OIA) just released a report on the FBI’s US person queries of raw FISA data, including Section 702. The report strongly underscores the need for Congress to impose a warrant requirement for these queries. 1/11 fbi.gov/news/press-rel… Some background: according to FBI rules approved by the FISA Court, the FBI may search Section 702 data for Americans’ communications (a “US person query”) only if the search is reasonably likely to return foreign intelligence or evidence of a crime. 2/11

The ODNI’s Annual Statistical Transparency Report is out today. The contents of this report underscore why Congress should not reauthorize Section 702 of FISA this year without wide-reaching surveillance reforms. 1/13 odni.gov/index.php/news… Let’s start with backdoor searches – i.e., the government’s practice of searching through Section 702 data, obtained without a warrant based on the government’s certification that it is targeting *only* foreigners, to find the communications of Americans. 2/13