Spartz Wants Overhaul Of FISA To Protect Americans

Source: (Photo by Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Congress will soon have to reauthorize FISA, also known as the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act, so that federal agencies can legally keep an eye on foreign adversaries.

However, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN-5th) is urging Congress to take a closer look at the reauthorization this time around as opposed to just passing it and going on their way. Spartz wants to make sure federal agencies, like the FBI, are not using loopholes in the law to illegally spy on American citizens.

“The main job of (Congress) is to protect people’s rights,” Spartz said in a speech on the House floor Wednesday. “And we know that the constitutional rights of the American people have been violated (before).”

Spartz, citing a recent study of FISA, said there are inconsistencies in the 2022 authorization of FISA, which she said was mostly crafted by Democrats, that she believes allow federal agencies to take advantage of loopholes in order to survey American citizens. She even went as far as to say that the purpose of some of the surveillance could be motivated by political, religious, or social activism.

“This is from the report. The board finds that Section 702 (of FISA) poses ‘significant’ privacy and civil liberty risks, most notably through US person queries and batch queries,” Spartz said.

Spartz said agencies have admitted they collect data on Americans, but that they cannot say how much. She said this is because of loopholes in the law. Spartz is calling for better regulation of the surveillance of Americans and that the FISA court needs to be more strict in authorizing such surveillance.

She said without that these changes federal agencies could have the ability to survey Americans without a warrant.

Spartz Wants Overhaul Of FISA To Protect Americans was originally published on wibc.com