How Arkansas’ congressional delegation voted

Here is how Arkansas’ U.S. senators and U.S. representatives voted on major roll call votes during the week that ended Friday. KEY: FOR AGAINST NOT VOTING PASSED DEFEATED

HOUSE

Extension of no-warrant

surveillance program. Passed 256-164, a six-year extension (S139) of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The law passed after Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks is a key government tool for detecting and preventing foreign-based terrorist activity, but also a target of criticism that it imperils the privacy rights of innocent Americans.

The law gives agencies, including the National Security Agency and FBI, no-warrant access to commercial databases of foreigners’ voice and digital communications phone calls, emails, online chats, text messaging and social-media postings — that pass through wireless and landline facilities in the United States. If agencies use the databases to target Americans suspected of terrorist connections, they must obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court warrants based on probable cause. When the government inadvertently sweeps up innocent Americans’ communications, the information must be expunged or disregarded, although the law lacks a means for outsiders to see if that has occurred.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was enacted in 1978 to govern domestic collection of foreign intelligence while protecting Americans’ civil liberties, and it has been amended several times to address post-9/11 terrorism threats. The law’s secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which issues blanket and specific warrants, and monitors government compliance with the law, is comprised of sitting federal judges who serve on a rotating basis.

Doug Collins, R-Ga., said: “This program allows the government to obtain the communication of foreigners outside the United States, including foreign terrorist threats. … It has allowed us to respond to threats to our country. … It cannot be used to target Americans, and it cannot be used to target individuals located inside the United States.”

David Cicilline, D-R.I., said: “There is no more important responsibility that we have than keeping the American people safe, but we have to do it in a way that is consistent with our values and our Constitution. This bill undermines our values of privacy and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.”

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate. Rick Crawford (R) French Hill (R) Steve Womack (R) Bruce Westerman (R)

Privacy rights in surveillance law. Defeated 183-233, a measure aimed at safeguarding Fourth Amendment privacy rights under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The amendment to S139 (above) sought to protect innocent Americans whose voice and digital communications with foreigners are swept up in government collections of information on foreigners suspected of terrorist activity.

The amendment would have prohibited “backdoor searches” for information on Americans in commercial telecommunication databases without a specific Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court warrant based on probable cause. It also would prohibit “reverse targeting,” no-warrant database searches aimed at foreign subjects that end up targeting Americans as well. In addition, the amendment would allow the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act law’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to review all government foreign-intelligence surveillance programs, not just ones related to terrorism.

Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said: “If you are going to search for the information of an American who has been collected in that database and it is not terrorism but a domestic criminal investigation, get a warrant. Get a warrant. That is what the Fourth Amendment requires.”

Jim Costa, D-Calif., said: “Americans cherish and strongly want us to protect their privacy. We all agree on that, and I think this [underlying] bill threads the needle,” whereas this amendment “is an overreach in the wrong direction.” A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.

Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R) Limits on FBI searches. Defeated 189-227, a motion that would expand the types of FBI searches of commercial telecommunication databases that require specific search warrants under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The underlying bill (S139, above) requires the FBI to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court warrants based on probable cause for searches targeting Americans in investigations specifically linked to national security and foreign intelligence. This measure sought to require Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court warrants for all FBI searches of databases to which the government has access under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said the underlying bill “makes important and meaningful civil-liberties improvements over the status quo,” but the amendment is needed because “no bill is perfect.”

Doug Collins, R-Ga., said the bill already “forecloses the possibility that FBI agents investigating Americans for traditional crimes would be able to use [Section] 702 information in such domestic investigations.”

A yes vote was to further limit FBI powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to target Americans in probes unrelated to terrorist activity. Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

Labor rights on tribal

lands. Passed 239-173, a bill (S140) that would remove Indian reservations from the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Act on grounds that they are sovereign nations and therefore exempt from that New Deal-era workplace law. This would take away collective-bargaining rights and other federally guaranteed employment rights now available to 600,000 or more workers at casinos on reservations, at least three-fourths of whom are not tribal members. The National Labor Relations Board has applied the National Labor Relations Act to commercial enterprises on Indian reservations since 2004.

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.

Crawford (R)

Hill (R)

Womack (R) Westerman (R)

SENATE

Extension on no-warrant

surveillance program. Approved 68-27, to start legislative action on a House-passed measure (S139, above) that would extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act through 2023, with debate and a final vote on the bill expected within days.

A yes vote was to advance the bill. John Boozman (R)

Tom Cotton (R)