House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) told Breitbart News in an exclusive that his “number one goal” this year is to block reauthorization of what is known as the “crown jewel” for the intelligence agencies.
Jordan spoke to Breitbart News as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will soon expire, leaving an opportunity for privacy-centric lawmakers and those critical of government overreach to fight for reform.
Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, left, speaks during a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill, February 9, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The Judiciary Committee chairman, who will have significant sway over the FISA reauthorization debate, said in no uncertain terms that he would do whatever he could to block reauthorizing the program.
Jordan said, “The number one goal I have between now and the end of the year is to stop the reauthorization of the 702 FISA program.”
The Ohio conservative in his argument against reauthorizing Section 702 cited a recently unsealed court document that found the FBI misused FISA over 300,000 times between 2020 and early 2021.
Section 702 is a law that allows intelligence agencies to collect communications of targeted foreigners. It also may lead to targeted surveillance of Americans’ private communications, which privacy advocates consider a run around the Fourth Amendment’s requirement for a warrant to search Americans’ communications.
An FBI audit also found that the agency had “insufficient justification” for two FISA searches relating to “January 6th Capitol Violence.”
Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, dramatically revealed that he was the unnamed lawmaker that was surveilled by the FBI. The FBI said the surveillance was a defensive countermeasure to make sure the Illinois Republican was not the subject of a foreign influence operation.
Here is the video of LaHood testifying that he was surveilled by the FBI:
C-SPAN
Jordan and other lawmakers’ critical comments about FISA may make a blanket reauthorization a non-starter.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) said in reaction to the report that the FBI had violated Americans’ privacy hundreds of thousands of times. “We know surveillance programs like Section 702 have been abused. Americans’ have a constitutional right to privacy, and we must end warrantless surveillance programs,” Davidson said.
We know surveillance programs like Section 702 have been abused.
Americans’ have a constitutional right to privacy, and we must end warrantless surveillance programs. https://t.co/08Fk6DCBYq
— Warren Davidson 🇺🇸 (@WarrenDavidson) May 22, 2023
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said, “This is an outrageous & unacceptable abuse of power. We cannot reauthorize FISA without a complete privacy overhaul that prevents the government from warrantlessly spying on Americans.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.