Washington, D.C. (RELEASE) April 12th, 2024 — Today, Congresswoman Harriet Hageman voted against H.R. 7888, the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act – a bill to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, section 702 (FISA Section 702). The bill passed the House of Representatives 273-147 without a key amendment to require the Department of Justice to obtain a warrant before conducting a search.

Representative Hageman stated, “Warrantless surveillance of the American people by the federal government in violation of their Fourth Amendment secured liberties is well documented and well known.

“As a member of the Judiciary Committee, I was proud to be involved in the development of the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act where we advanced important reforms to combat the abuses within FISA while still allowing it to be used to detect foreign threats, as it was intended. Three of these critical reforms were voted on as amendments to FISA 702, including an amendment to require the FBI to get a warrant before surveilling an American citizen. When this amendment failed, H.R. 7888 no longer forced the reining-in of the federal government’s ability to spy on Americans.

“I refuse to support legislation that violates our Constitutional rights.”

Background:

• The targeting of Americans is well documented. Reporting from the Office of the Director for National Intelligence found that in 2021 the FBI conducted 3,394,053 U.S. person queries without a warrant. In 2022 the FBI was still conducting hundreds of warrantless queries per day.

• In May of last year, the Washington Post reported that in 2020 and early 2021 the FBI conducted over 278,000 searches of the 702 database which violated Justice Department rules and often lacked national security connections.

• Even the FISA Court found that “the FBI’s querying of Section 702 information has proven to be persistent and widespread.”

• The underlying rule, which was voted on this morning, made in order three critically important amendments – one prohibiting warrantless searches of Americans in the 702 database, one enhancing reporting requirements and injecting Congress into the FISA Court Process, and one ending the overly intrusive abouts collection. The first of these three amendment votes failed and was not included in the final bill.

• These amendments were crucial to placing limitations and ensuring transparency into federal authorities in a manner which responds directly to abuses exposed and well documented in the courts, media, Congress, and more.