At 5:30pm EST today, the Senate votes on a bill that would expand the warrantless surveillance of Americans. These are the senators we have to flood with phone calls right now.
Just last week the House voted 256–164 to reauthorize and expand Section 702 of the Foreign Surveillance Act. The bill passed directly after the House failed to approve a substitute amendment, the USA Rights Act, which would have explicitly established warrant protections from “backdoor” searches that allow law enforcement agencies like the FBI to search the communications data of U.S. persons in the NSA’s massive databases without needing a warrant.
Congress is trying to ram this through without debate. The Senate votes on the bill 5:30pm EST on Tuesday, January 16th.
We only need 41 senators to vote “NO” on cloture (a “cloture” vote in the U.S. Senate requires 60 votes to pass and effectively ends debate on a bill). Privacy-minded Republicans and many Democrats are already on the record opposing the bill, so we can stop cloture and prevent the bill from passing, forcing Congress to go back to the drawing board instead of reauthorizing unconstitutional spying programs for 6 more years.
Call (202) 804–3305 to hear a script and get connected to your senators offices.
Below is a list of senators who we need to hold to vote “NO” on cloture. The vote is in less than 24 hours so you can tweet, call, and email them now.
Tell them to defend the Fourth Amendment and vote “NO” on cloture and “NO” on S. 139.
- Senator Schumer (D-NY) @SenSchumer Phone: (202) 224–6542
- Senator Booker (D-NJ) @CoryBooker Phone: (202) 224–3224
- Senator Heller (R-NV) @SenDeanHeller Phone: 202–224–6244
- Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) @SenBlumenthal Phone: (202) 224–2823
- Senator Cardin (D-MD) @SenatorCardin Phone: (202) 224–4524
- Senator Peters (D-MI) @SenGaryPeters Phone: (202) 224–6221
- Senator Shaheen (D-NH) @SenatorShaheen Phone: (202) 224–2841
- Senator Sullivan (R-AK) @SenDanSullivan Phone: (202)-224–3004
- Senator Bennet (D-CO) @SenBennetCO Phone: 202–224–5852
- Senator Stabenow (D-MI) @SenStabenow Phone: (202) 224–4822
- Senator Klobuchar (D-MN) @amyklobuchar Phone: 202–224–3244
- Senator McCaskill (D-MO) @clairecmc Phone: (202) 224–6154
- Senator Cruz (R-TX) @SenTedCruz Phone: (202) 224–5922
- Senator Hassan (D-NH) @SenatorHassan Phone: (202) 224–3324
- Senator Cortez Masto (D-NV) @SenCortezMasto Phone: (202) 224–3542
- Senator Kennedy (R-LA) @SenJohnKennedy Phone: (202) 224–4623
Had the 55 Democrats that voted against the substitute amendment supported it, the Senate could be passing meaningful privacy reforms tomorrow. Instead, a 702 reauthorization bill that would extend NSA, FBI, and presidential mass spying powers for 6 more years without warrant protections for Americans and includes a pathway for the NSA to again collect even larger amounts of Americans’ information through “abouts” collection has been fast-tracked to the Senate where they will vote on its final passage on Tuesday, January 16th at 5:30pm EST.
Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) are both threatening to filibuster the bill, S. 139, because it does not include meaningful reforms, like an end to warrantless “backdoor” searches that violate our constitutional right to privacy. See here and here. They’re also joined by Senators Leahy and Lee in a letter urging their colleagues to vote no on S. 139 without reforms.
Our right to privacy is a cornerstone to a free and democratic society. Now, more than ever, our lawmakers should be safeguarding our freedoms and the U.S. Constitution. Any senator who fails to do so doesn’t belong in the Senate. That’s why we’re crowdfunding billboards targeting lawmakers who support the warrantless mass surveillance of Americans. And, why we’ve built a chat-bot that lets Internet users send letters to their lawmakers and also sends reminders on your lawmakers’ vote on FISA before the next election. Text FREEDOM to 384–387 to participate.
We have to flood our senators with phone calls today. Call (202) 804–3305 to hear a script and get connected to your senators’ offices.
You can also text FREEDOM to 384–387 at any time to send a message to your senators. (Data and message rates apply. Reply “stop” to unsubscribe.)
