A newly proposed, bipartisan bill would repeal both the Patriot Act of 2001 and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act (FISA) of 2008 that allow the federal government to spy on people without warrants and probable cause.
The Protect Our Civil Liberties Act, H.R. 8970, sponsored by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), would bar the government from collecting Americans’ personal data, such as phone records and emails. Gabbard and Massie contend that the Patriot Act and FISA Amendments Act violate Americans’ civil liberties and right to privacy as granted in the Constitution.
The bill could stir up the ongoing tussle between government and private industry over national security and individual privacy. Gabbard's and Massie's measure would bar the government from insisting that back door technology be baked into hardware and software to enable officials to skirt encryption tools. It would also prevent the government from going after national security whistleblowers. To assure compliance, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) would be directed to monitor domestic surveillance programs.
Both Congressional members positioned the bill as protecting Americans’ civil liberties and right to privacy as granted in the 4th Amendment to the Constitution. “In the last two decades, in part because of information revealed by Edward Snowden, we now know that there have been ongoing breaches of our civil liberties through programs that were instituted through the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act, which basically allowed agencies within our government to conduct mass illegal surveillance on Americans without a warrant or probable cause,” Gabbard said in a video describing the bill. She also criticized the U.S. intelligence community for a lack of transparency and honesty with the American people and Congress.
Massie, who is a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, called the bill “basically a cornucopia of civil liberties,” in an interview with Fox Business. “This would be great to pass...I believe did a great service to this country. He deserves a pardon,” Massie said. (In 2013, Snowden leaked highly classified material about the U.S. National Security Agency's global surveillance program. Later that year, he was charged with violating the Espionage Act of 1917. Snowden currently lives in Russia where he has been granted asylum.
Gabbard recently introduced a House Resolution to help small businesses survive the pandemic by preventing crisis profiteering by tech companies and big box retailers that have thrived in the contagion. The Resolution would tax large companies at a 95 percent rate of excess profits made during the pandemic and direct those funds to provide economic support to small businesses.
In October, 2020, Gabbard introduced H.Res.1162 with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and H.Res.1175 with Massie. The former called on the federal government to drop all charges against Edward Snowden and the latter defended the freedom of the press and called on the federal government to drop all charges against Julian Assange.
Here’s specifically what H.R. 8970 would do:
