December 8, 2023 The Honorable Mike Johnson
Speaker
United States House of Representatives
United States Capitol
Washington, D.C., 20515
Dear Speaker Johnson and Members of the U.S. House of Representatives:
We urge you to support the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act (H.R. 6570) that was reported out of the House Judiciary Committee on December 6 in an overwhelming bipartisan 35-2 vote.
The American people are growing increasingly concerned about government surveillance practices that treat privacy as a luxury and the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution as a nuisance. The Protect Liberty Act is the most important government surveillance reform measure in several generations, taking incredible strides to put an end to abuses that have persisted for far too long.
The Protect Liberty Act sets forth a robust warrant requirement for U.S. person searches under FISA Section 702, with reasonable exceptions for emergencies, consent, and cybersecurity-related searches. It is the only alternative to be considered by the House that makes this crucial reform.
The FBI’s abuses under
Section 702 are well-documented. It has been used to spy on
millions of Americans in the last few years alone, including judges, sitting Members of Congress, 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign, and countless others. The Protect Liberty Act also closes the loophole that allows government agencies to buy
Americans’
geolocation data and other sensitive private personal information from data brokers. This abusive surveillance technique is a blatant workaround of our Fourth Amendment rights, and it has become an increasingly popular practice by federal agencies. Reforming FISA Section 702 without closing the data broker loophole would in all
likelihood simply shift the government’s intrusive surveillance from one mechanism to the
other. Once again, the Protect Liberty Act is the only bill to be considered that modernizes
our surveillance laws to stop this rapidly growing means of abusing American’s privacy.
The Protect Liberty Act also requires amici participation in FISA cases to protect the public and the Constitution, and it includes a host of other reforms to safeguard our constitutional rights against intrusive and unreasonable government surveillance. It has won widespread, bipartisan support because it is a well-crafted and balanced bill. As the Protect Liberty Act demonstrates, we can protect our national security and also safeguard our constitutional rights. We can restore the rule of law, while reauthorizing Section 702 to allow legitimate foreign intelligence surveillance. There is absolutely no
need to let the Administration continue to trample on our Fourth Amendment freedoms.
The Judiciary
Committee’s Protect Liberty Act
is the right way to rebuild the trust of the American people, by respecting their constitutional rights while safeguarding our national security. Sincerely,
Bob Goodlatte Former Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee & Lamar Smith Former Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee