Wyden Calls for Reforms to FISA Section 702 In Response to Increased Spying on of Americans’ Communications By Trump-Vance Administration

Washington, D.C.—Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., renewed his call for reform of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act today, in response to two new reports released on government surveillance. The law expires on April 20 and is expected to be debated in Congress in coming weeks.
The firstreportwas on Section 702 and authored by the sole remaining member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a former Trump appointee. Thesecondwas an annual transparency report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
“Donald Trump illegally fired members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board - now the only board member left is a former Trump appointee. She just put out a report that says Trump needs to do more warrantless spying on Americans. No one should fall for it.
“The report shows that last year there was a dramatic spike in ‘sensitive’ warrantless searches, which involve looking for and reading the communications of American journalists and American political and religious organizations. The FBI refused to explain why these searches more than tripled. Given Trump’s enthusiasm for investigating journalists and political opponents, this is a blaring alarm warning of abuses.
“The PCLOB report fails in another respect. I have raised concerns about a secret interpretation of Section 702 that affects the privacy of Americans. While this matter was addressed in the classified annex to the PCLOB’s 2023 report on Section 702, it was omitted entirely from today’s report.
“Meanwhile, the government today released data showing significant increases in overall collection under these warrantless authorities and significant increases in FBI searches for Americans’ communications. The data also reveals that, while the PATRIOT Act “business records” authorities expired more than six years ago, the government has used a loophole to more than quadruple warrantless collection under these expired authorities.
“Congress should not vote to renew Section 702 unless we close these and other loopholes in our laws that can be abused to surveil Americans, by passing the reforms in my Government Surveillance Reform Act.”
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