Where are we? Congress just passed a law expanding the NSA’s warrantless mass surveillance powers. Now it’s up to the president to stop it.

The U.S. Senate just voted 65–34 to pass S. 139, a bill that reauthorizes and expands the NSA’s unconstitutional surveillance authority to tap our online communications for 6 more years.

The bill now goes to the president who should heed the warnings of privacy-minded lawmakers like Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who vehemently opposes S. 139 on constitutional grounds, and veto it. (Tell Trump to VetoCongress)

“I rise in opposition to the government listening to your phone calls, reading your emails or reading your text messages without a warrant,” Paul said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “It doesn’t mean the government will never do this, but it means they will have to ask a judge. They would have to ask a judge if they have probable cause that you committed a crime.”

That’s exactly the kind of surveillance power Congress’ bill establishes, by reauthorizing Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act.

While proponents of the bill claim it’s only intended to target the online communications of foreigners, Section 702 actually, by design, turns the Internet into a powerful surveillance weapon that the U.S. government uses against its own citizens. The government’s surveillance abuses have violated the freedom against unreasonable searches and seizures of millions.

Last week, Trump signaled his apprehension towards Congress’ FISA bill, tweeting, “‘House votes on controversial FISA ACT today.’ This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?”

Specifically, S. 139 reauthorizes Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act which the NSA uses to justify the collection and storage of our emails, texts, and other electronic communications without a warrant. It also writes into law a controversial pathway to reinstate “about” collection which is currently, in effect, illegal. The NSA has previously used “about” collection to sweep up communications of anyone mentioning certain information associated with targets of investigations.

The sweeping surveillance powers Section 702 authorizes have been abused by law enforcement agencies and will, without a doubt, continue to be abused (as recently at 2017, the NSA has been found to have intentionally kept Section 702 acquired data that they were supposed to purge). In fact, a “shocking” yet-to-be-released memo highlighting U.S. government surveillance abuses was circulating in Congress today, just as the Senate took its final vote on the bill.

In the past, U.S. intelligence officials have told Congress that the government was not spying on Americans, but it was the 2013 Edward Snowden leaks that brought to light just how massive and far-reaching the U.S. government’s spying powers have become in the digital age. Snowden leaks include revelations that the secret FISA court ordered Verizon to submit, on an “ongoing, daily basis,” all metadata records it had it of its millions of customers’ phone calls to the FBI.

Congress knew they had limited time to debate government surveillance authorities, but leadership in the House and Senate refused to take up this fundamental issue and waited until the last minute to push through a reauthorization bill cleared by the intelligence community.

In fact, lawmakers voted down an opportunity to pass a FISA reauthorization bill that included meaningful and long-awaited privacy reforms.

Last week in the House, an impressive bipartisan group of privacy-minded lawmakers presented a substitute amendment to S. 139 that would have ended the warrantless surveillance of U.S. persons. But, as has been widely reported, 55 Democrats followed House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s lead and joined with the GOP majority vote down the amendment. Had just 26 Democrats supported it, the amendment would have passed and we could be celebrating the passage of meaningful FISA privacy reform.

The bill was on the Senate floor for its final vote today. 7 Republicans broke party rank (this *does* *not* *happen* *often*) and voted against S. 139. But, just like in the House last week, 21 Senate Democrats voted with GOP leadership to expand warrantless government spying powers and the bill passed 65–34.

To hold these lawmakers accountable, we’ve launched the Citizens’ Vote pledge to remind voters how their lawmakers voted ahead of the 2018 primary and general elections. You can take the pledge by texting FREEDOM to 384–387.

Now, it’s up to Trump to VetoCongress’ bill reauthorizing the government’s unconstitutional power to spy on our online communications.

Tell Trump to VetoCongress. You can call the White House by dialing 202–456–1414 or visit VetoCongress.org for more information.

These are the senators that voted to expand the government’s warrantless spying programs:

Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Capito (R-WV)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cortez Masto (D-NV)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Duckworth (D-IL)
Enzi (R-WY)
Ernst (R-IA)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hassan (D-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Jones (D-AL)
Kaine (D-VA)
Kennedy (R-LA)
King (I-ME)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Lankford (R-OK)
Manchin (D-WV)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Nelson (D-FL)
Perdue (R-GA)
Peters (D-MI)
Portman (R-OH)
Reed (D-RI)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Schumer (D-NY)
Scott (R-SC)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Shelby (R-AL)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Warner (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wicker (R-MS)
Young (R-IN)

These are the 34 senators that defended liberty (thank them!):

Baldwin (D-WI)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Coons (D-DE)
Daines (R-MT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Gardner (R-CO)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Harris (D-CA)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Heller (R-NV)
Hirono (D-HI)
Leahy (D-VT)
Lee (R-UT)
Markey (D-MA)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Paul (R-KY)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Smith (D-MN)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-NM)
Van Hollen (D-MD)
Warren (D-MA)
Wyden (D-OR)