House GOP Working on FISA Reform To Block Snooping On Americans’ Phone Records Without Warrants

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee are pushing for broad changes to the government’s FISA surveillance authority, which would, among other things, make it illegal for the FBI to search through phone records of Americans without a judge’s approval.

As several Patriot Act authorities expire at the end of the year, the effort is expected to be completed by then. Legislators told Just the News that there is unusual bipartisan cooperation between Republicans and Democrats on this issue.

“We’ve got, I think, strong agreement amongst members of the Intelligence Committee and members of the Judiciary Committee. And frankly, some Democrats as well, that there needs to be stronger penalties if you abuse the system,” Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan said during an interview with “Just The News.”

Jordan stated that his focus was on the Section 702 system, which allows agents to search phone communications metadata “where they can create this database” without a warrant.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court declassified a report earlier this year that revealed FBI agents had improperly searched Americans’ phone records more than 270,000 times over two years, alarming civil liberty experts and drawing condemnation from both parties.

“There needs to be more transparency, more accountability, more audits, and more reporting to Congress and the American people,” Jordan said. “So I think we have broad agreement there that those kinds of fundamental changes have to happen.