John— Breaking update on this: after we stopped the vote on the floor, House leadership is now trying to ram through the FISA / PATRIOT ACT surveillance reauthorization using an obscure Congressional mechanism. Please chip in now and stand by for a more in depth update soon.
- Evan
John,
I kind of can’t believe this is happening. We just got handed a once in a lifetime opportunity to FINALLY shut down the mass government surveillance programs created by FISA and the USA PATRIOT ACT.
The House of Representatives was set to vote last night on a bill to reauthorize these Orwellian spying authorities. Everyone expected it to pass. But they were forced to pull the bill at the very last second when it became clear they didn’t have the votes!1
That’s thanks to the thousands of you who have emailed and called your legislators, and rank and file members of both parties revolting against Congressional leadership after they refused to include basic protections to prevent warrantless monitoring of our Internet activity.2
Now we are in uncharted territory. We’re closer than we’ve ever been before to forcing Congress to end these invasive and ineffective surveillance programs once and for all. But politicians in DC will be huddling with intelligence agencies to try to figure out how to bend the rules and ram through a reauthorization. We can’t let that happen.
Can you rush a donation right now to help us cover the cost of connecting thousands of calls to Congress to FINALLY put an end to FISA and PATRIOT ACT surveillance programs and stop the government from spying on our Internet activity?
The opposition to reauthorizing these surveillance authorities is as bipartisan as it gets. Progressive democrats have pointed out how these programs have been repeatedly abused to target marginalized groups, activists, journalists, and religious minorities. Republicans have raised alarm bells after the FISA court allegedly approved surveillance of the Trump campaign. The reality is that these authoritarian spying powers are dangerous no matter who is in the White House. They were wrong under Bush. They were wrong under Obama. And they’re wrong now.
But Congressional leadership from both sides of the aisle will be negotiating furiously behind the scenes to try to bring these FBI and NSA spying programs back from the dead. And the only thing that will stop them is if we can flood our elected officials with even more phone calls and hold the line so that they don’t start to cave under pressure to fall in line with party leadership.
Over the last 72 hours, thousands and thousands of you have used our action page SaveInternetPrivacy.org to contact your house reps. It’s clearly making a difference. But we can’t let up now.
Our tool makes it super easy for ordinary people to make their voices heard. But it costs us money to connect the phone calls, deliver the emails to lawmakers, and cover staff costs to build coalitions, directly pressure key lawmakers, get press coverage, and more.
We can stop Congress from reauthorizing these FISA and PATRIOT ACT surveillance programs. But we need your help. Please chip in whatever you can right now, whether it’s $5, $50, or $5,000, it will make a huge difference. But time is of the essence.
DONATE
For our basic rights,
Evan at Fight for the Future
P.S. We know many people are struggling right now due to COVID-19, unemployment, etc. If that’s you, please know our hearts go out to you and we’ll keep fighting for your basic rights no matter what. If you’re lucky enough to still be collecting a salary right now, please consider becoming a monthly sustainer, to help make up the difference with so many people unable to donate right now.
Footnotes:
1. The Hill: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/499751-house-fisa-bill-suddenly-on-life-support
2. Vice: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bv8z7q/surveillance-hawks-sabotaged-a-vote-to-stop-the-fbi-from-collecting-your-internet-history
Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.
