Congressman Biggs Denounces House’s Failure to Adopt FISA Section 702 Warrant Requirement Amendment

Today, Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ) issued the following statement regarding the House's failure to adopt his amendment to H.R. 7888, the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act,to stop warrantless searches of Americans under FISA 702. The vote ended in a 212-212 tie, preventing adoption of the amendment.

"Today's failure of Congress to end warrantless surveillance of Americans under the FISA 702 program is a travesty to the constitutional right to privacy guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment," said Congressman Biggs.

"The FBI and the intelligence community as a whole have made clear their willingness to skirt the Fourth Amendment through backdoor searches of Americans' data. According to the most recently available information published by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the FBI conducted 278,000 warrantless backdoor searches on American citizens in a single year in violation of their self-imposed rules. They improperly searched 19,000 donors to a congressional candidate, Americans on both sides of the aisle attending political protests, journalists and political commentators, Members of Congress, other government officials, and more. Without a warrant requirement, the FBI will continue to push the boundaries of Section 702.

"86 Republicans sided with Joe Biden and the Uniparty to oppose stronger protections for Americans' Fourth Amendment rights. Their deference to the DC Cartel is telling.

"I am thankful for the bipartisan support from my colleagues in both the House and the Senate. Though disappointing, this setback is not the end of our fight to safeguard Americans from being surveilled by their own government."