Police Would Need Warrant to Collect US Data Under Wyden, Lee Bill

and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, introduced legislation that would reauthorize FISA Section 702 with several key changes meant to curb intelligence community surveillance abuse. The bill has support from a wide range of Senate and House sponsors, including Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.; Thomas Massie, R-Ky.; and Ted Lieu, D-Calif. The bill includes a warrant requirement for collecting American communication data and bans the government from buying U.S. citizens’ information from data brokers. The bill includes provisions meant to block the intelligence community from using foreign targets as a “pretext for spying on Americans with whom they are communicating.” The bill “creates much stronger protections for the privacy of law-abiding Americans, and restores the warrant protections that are at the heart of the Fourth Amendment,” said Wyden. Lee criticized the Biden administration for reportedly opposing the warrant requirement. Biden “wants to veto our bipartisan government surveillance reform bill, because apparently illegal spying on American citizens is very important to his administration. And he hasn’t even read the bill yet!” Lee posted to X on Tuesday. Key sponsors missing from the legislation are House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and ranking member Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. Nadler told us Tuesday he needs to work with Jordan and “see what he wants to do. We may have a meeting of minds on this,” but generally what Wyden’s group “is proposing I like.” The legislation is supported by dozens of groups, including American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Prosperity, Center for Democracy & Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Fight for the Future and Free Press Action.