Over 50 Groups Oppose Bill to Legalize and Extend NSA Surveillance

POGO joins 53 other groups in opposing the FISA Improvement Act, a bill that would legalize and extend NSA mass surveillance, including domestic surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden's disclosures.

December 18, 2013

By POGO Staff

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To:

The Honorable Harry Reid
Senate Majority Leader
S-221, The US Capitol
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker of the House
H-232, The US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Senate Minority Leader
S-230, The US Capitol
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi House
Minority Leader
H-204, The US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Members of Congress,

As civil liberties groups and other organizations advancing the public interest, we write this letter today to strongly urge you to oppose S. 1631, the FISA Improvements Act. The FISA Improvements Act does not offer real reform to stop the NSA’s mass collection of our communications and communications records. Instead, S. 1631 seeks to entrench some of the worst forms of NSA surveillance into US law and to extend the NSA surveillance programs in unprecedented ways.

If the FISA Improvements Act were to pass, the NSA would continue to collect telephone records of hundreds of millions of Americans not suspected of any crime. This is a violation of Americans’ privacy and Constitutional rights. Multiple polls, including a September 2013 Associated Press poll, consistently show a strong majority of the American people opposing such programs.

Furthermore, the bill seeks to permit the NSA to restart the bulk collection of Internet communication records—an extremely invasive, secret program the government attempted under dubious legal ground but abandoned because it wasn't effective.

The NSA mass surveillance programs already sweep up data about millions of people daily. This shadow of surveillance chills freedom of speech, undermines confidence in US Internet companies, and runs afoul of the Constitution.

Please champion real reform to end these programs and oppose S. 1631, which would codify and expand them.

Signed by: