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Today, The Hill reported that Rep. Jim Himes , the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, acknowledged that many of his Democratic colleagues plan to flip their votes against renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act because they do not trust the Trump administration with the law's sweeping warrantless surveillance powers.
Despite those concerns, Himes is continuing to push for renewal and against any votes on privacy protections.The following is a statement from Demand Progress Executive Director Sean Vitka: 'Donald Trump has shown he will abuse every inch of power we give him. So you would think that given an opportunity to check his authority and protect Americans, Democrats would jump at the chance. But instead, Rep. Jim Himes is failing his critical role as an overseer of intelligence agencies and using his political power to lobby his fellow Democrats in service of the Trump administration domestic surveillance agenda. It is unforgivably cynical and reckless for Rep. Himes to make it easier for this administration to spy on Americans, especially at a time when Government agencies’ have made it clear that they intend to supercharge surveillance with AI, and when their misuse of these powers is horrifically on display.' Section 702 allows the government to collect hundreds of millions of communications of foreign targets, which routinely sweeps in with conversations with and the private data of Americans. Privacy groups are broadly calling for reforms before any reauthorization, including requiring a warrant before government agents search through FISA databases knowingly in pursuit of information about people in the United States, and recently Demand Progress further led over 130 organizations in demanding Congress close the data broker loophole, which allows federal agencies to purchase Americans' private data without a warrant and feed it into AI-powered surveillance systems. Section 702 is set to expire April 20. The New York Times mentioned the efforts here.
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