congressional roll call
HOUSE
EXTENSION OF WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM:
Voting 256 for and 164 against, the House on Jan. 11 approved a six-year extension (S 139) of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The post -9/11 law 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 (NSA) and FBI warrantless 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 FISA-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.
FISA 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. ARKANSAS
Voting yes: Bruce Westerman, R-4 TEXAS
Voting yes: John Ratcliffe, R-4 Voting no: Louie Gohmert, R-1
PRIVACY RIGHTS IN SURVEILLANCE LAW:
Voting 183 for and 233 against, the House on Jan. 11 defeated a measure aimed at safeguarding Fourth Amendment privacy rights under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The amendment to S 139 (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 telecom databases without a specific FISA-court warrant based on probable cause. It also would prohibit “reverse targeting,” warrantless database searches aimed at foreign subjects that end up targeting Americans as well. In addition, the amendment would allow the FISA 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. ARKANSAS
Voting no: Westerman TEXAS
Voting yes: Gohmert Voting no: Ratcliffe
LIMITS ON FBI SEARCHES:
Voting 189 for and 227 against, the House on Jan. 11 defeated a motion that would expand the types of FBI searches of commercial telecom databases that require specific search warrants under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The underlying bill (S 139, above) requires the FBI to obtain FISA-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 FISA-court warrants for all FBI searches of databases to which the government has access under Section 702 of the FISA law.
Jim Himes, D-Conn., said the underlying bill “makes important and meaningful civil-liberties improvements over the status quo,” his that 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 FISA law to target Americans in probes unrelated to terrorist activity. ARKANSAS
Voting no: Westerman TEXAS
Voting yes: Gohmert Voting no: Ratcliffe
LABOR RIGHTS ON TRIBAL LANDS:
Voting 239 for and 173 against, the House on Jan. 10 passed a bill (S 140) that would remove Indian reservations from the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) on grounds 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 NLRA to commercial enterprises on Indian reservations since 2004.
Tim Walberg, R-Mich., said: “These tribes have created their own system of labor protections for employees and employers consistent with their lands and traditions, and it is not for Washington bureaucrats to tamper with those protections.”
Robert Scott, D-Va., said: “There is no principled basis for stripping hundreds of thousands of workers from the right to join a union and negotiate better wages simply because they happen to work in a commercial enterprise on tribal lands.”
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate. ARKANSAS
Voting yes: Westerman TEXAS Voting yes: Gohmert, Ratcliffe
SENATE EXTENSION OF WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM:
The Senate on Jan. 11 voted, 68 for and 27 against, to start legislative action on a House-passed measure (S 139, above) that would extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) through 2023, with debate and a final vote on the bill expected within days.
A yes vote was to advance the bill. ARKANSAS
Voting yes: Tom Cotton, R, John Boozman, R TEXAS
Voting yes: John Cornyn, R, Ted Cruz, R
KEY VOTES AHEAD
The House will debate abortion and banking deregulation in the week of Jan. 15, while the Senate will take up an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Both chambers will vote on stopgap funding to avert a partial government shutdown at week’s end.