(MENAFN- EIN Presswire)
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WASHINGTON - Late Friday night, the United States Senate passed legislation to reauthorize Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for another two years, along with other reforms.
U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) co-led an amendment with U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) to prohibit warrantless access to communications and other information of Americans, enhance privacy and civil liberty protections, and mandate the government obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before accessing Americans' private communications incidentally collected under Section 702 of FISA. The bipartisan amendment was blocked by a vote of 42 to 50.
Senator Cramer issued the following statement after voting against final passage of the bill:
“The Department of Justice's abuses of FISA to spy on American citizens and their communications are unacceptable and contrary to the intent of the protections enshrined in our Fourth Amendment. The prohibition on unreasonable search and seizure can't be taken for granted. While the legislation passed by the House made valuable improvements to the FISA process, I could not vote for final passage of this bill without added protections for Americans' privacy. The strong, bipartisan interest in substantive reforms is an indication this fight is not over for me or my colleagues.”
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