Senator Thune supports spying on you, but not on his buddies
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Something ironic happened during the Congressional vote to end the government shutdown. This ironic event would not have been possible if our Read the Bills and One Subject at a Time acts were already the law of the land.
Senator Thune inserted a dirty little provision into the bill that ended the government shutdown. He did this at the last moment without notifying the Speaker of the House, and the House then passed the bill without knowing it contained this provision. The Thune provision allows some Republican members of Congress to sue the government for spying on them. This is ironic because…
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Senator Thune twice voted to extend the PATRIOT Act and once voted against the USA Freedom Act, which would have given Americans increased protections against secret state surveillance.
So who spied on members of Congress? How was the spying justified? And what could happen if these suits go forward?
The spies were the FBI, acting under a secret subpoena.
The purpose was to surveil communications from certain Republicans on the days before and after the January 6th storming of the Capitol, to see if they conspired in criminal activity. If the suits go forward and the Republican politicians win, the Thune legislation authorizes $500,000 in compensation for each act of surveillance. This could amount to millions of dollars that taxpayers will have to give to politicians.
No wonder Thune wanted to hide this from public view. And please notice that you have no such power to sue the government if it secretly spies on you.
The One Subject at a Time Act (OSTA) would have prevented this. The Read the Bills Act means that it would have been noticed if Thune had attempted it anyway, in violation of OSTA.
Again and again, we see the power of our proposals. If you have not yet signed up for The 300 for OSTA in your district, please do so.
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Set your own agenda,
Jim Babka, President
Agenda Setters by Downsize DC
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