Press Releases

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) issued the following statement opposing the House’s FISA reauthorization bill (H.R. 7888):

“The federal government should not have unchecked access to Americans’ personal data. Congress must always balance our constitutional protections and our national security needs. I support a warrant standard, which would require federal officials to justify surveilling U.S. citizens. The lack of this reform only continues the status quo. I have called for these reforms since my early days in Congress and will continue efforts to reform these surveillance powers.”

Background

• In 2018, DelBene opposed the FISA reauthorization because of a lack of a warrant standard.
• In 2015, DelBene successfully led an effort to reform Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which ended the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records.
• FISA Section 702 authorizes surveillance of foreign individuals located outside the U.S. without a warrant but has been shown to also collect large volumes of Americans’ communications, which may in turn be used by U.S. law enforcement to help investigate or prosecute domestic criminal matters.