House Passes Extension of Surveillance Apparatus

FEATURING SHAHID BUTTAR – Donald Trump early on Thursday morning tweeted ahead of a House vote on extending surveillance provisions in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). He wrote, “This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?”

But less than 2 hours later the President contradicted himself tweeting, “With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!”

The House went on to pass the bill in question, with many Democrats joining Republicans in extending Section 702 of FISA. That section allows the collection of information on non-Americans, but also on the Americans who communicate with them, without the requirement of a warrant.

For more information visit www.EFF.org.

Shahid Buttar, Director of Grassroots Advocacy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.