A measure requiring federal agents to obtain a warrant before searching American communications collected as part of foreign intelligence failed to pass the House of Representatives today. The measure received 212 votes in favor and 212 against.
“This is a sad day for America,” She said Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). “The President doesn’t always vote in the House, but today he decided the tiebreaker. He voted against the mandates.”
But it was above all the Democrats who canceled the request for the mandate. House Democrats voted against the measure 84-126, while Republicans voted for the measure 128-86.
MAGA Republicans have been the ones leading the charge for Section 702 reform, which they see as part of the reign of an unaccountable FBI and “deep state.”
The measure in question came in the form of an amendment to House Resolution 7888, the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA). H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Section 702, which must be reauthorized every four years, technically gives the federal government the authority to collect and search the digital communications of foreign persons outside the United States. But in doing so, federal spies also collect all kinds of communications from Americans, and FBI agents regularly search this database when investigating domestic crimes.
For more than a decade, activists and some lawmakers have pushed for warrants to search the Section 702 database of information on American citizens.
Requiring a warrant to search Americans’ communications “is something the Constitution ALREADY requires,” he underlined former Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, calling on people to “vote out every person who voted no” on the mandate requirements.