702 Sunset Victory! But the Fight Continues

Thanks to everyone who took action over the past few months to urge Congress to either enact substantive reforms or allow FISA section 702 sunset.

We got the sunset!

This is a major victory, but it also means there is more work ahead.

Trump’s appointment of his unqualified lackey, Bill Pulte, to be Director of National Security helped Democrats in Congress see the obvious: you don’t give vast, unchecked surveillance power to someone you know is going to abuse it. The problem is that these same politicians seem fine with handing over the same powers to Kash Patel and Donald Trump himself.

No one in government can be trusted with unchecked surveillance powers, no matter which party or how respectful of the Constitution they pretend to be. Obama and Biden’s FBI also routinely abused FISA to unconstitutionally obtain U.S. person communications. 

Our job over the next period of time is to continue to educate members of Congress that three reforms are essential, no matter who is Director of National Intelligence:

• Prohibit the FBI from sifting through foreign intelligence surveillance data for our communications without first obtaining a warrant; 
• Prohibit all government agencies including the FBI, ICE, DHS from skirting the Fourth Amendment by buying data about us from data brokers that would normally require a warrant;
• Fix the definition of “Electronic Communication Service Provider” so it doesn’t give the NSA access to the communications equipment of a huge array of businesses and commercial locations that provide wifi to customers, vastly expanding the universe of Americans’ communications that can be “incidentally” collected and creating enormous potential for abuse.  

Defending Rights & Dissent, along with our allies, has consistently hit these points with legislators in meetings, letters (here, here, here and here), public statements, and private communications. 

You, along with thousands of other folks who understand the threat of unfettered government surveillance to our privacy and our democracy, pulled together to ensure this victory. 

Thank you!

What’s next?

Although surveillance hawks have been claiming that our intelligence would “go dark” if Section 702 were allowed to sunset, that’s an outright lie. The FISA court approved the current program through March, 2027. The NSA will continue to hoover up vast troves of data, including Americans’ communications. And the FBI will continue to search through that data without a warrant.

Unfortunately, Senator Warner (D-VA, and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee) and Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT, and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee) have both praised Trump’s new DNI pick, Jay Claton and are eager to “move quickly to get FISA  reauthorized” now that Pulte is out of the picture. 

We’ll continue to pressure Congress to enact necessary reforms as outlined above, and continue to mobilize our activist network to hammer home the message.