McClellan Statement on FISA Reauthorization Vote

Washington, D.C. -Today, Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (VA-04) issued the following statement after she voted against H.R. 9238 to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Service Intelligence Act:

"While Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has been an important tool to collect, analyze and share foreign intelligence information on individual terrorists, weapons proliferators, hackers and other foreign intelligence targets, it also has been weaponized to spy on American citizens through loopholes that allow the federal government to purchase their data for warrantless searches, in blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment. I cannot vote for a FISA Section 702 reauthorization bill that does not include reforms to improve accountability and balance privacy concerns with our national security priorities.

"Moreover, President Trump's selection of Bill Pulte as Acting Director of National Intelligence gives me greater pause to reauthorize Section 702 without reforms. A partisan attack dog for the President, Pulte has no national security or intelligence experience to qualify him to oversee the United States intelligence apparatus. His unwavering loyalty to Trump and pattern of weaponizing his role as Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency against the President's perceived enemies make granting him unfettered authority under FISA Section 702 unacceptable.

"The Trump Administration wants to conduct widespread and unchecked surveillance of the public to target its political enemies. Pulte and Speaker Mike Johnson seem all too eager to help the Administration with this effort. I refuse to grant someone like Bill Pulte the ability to abuse Section 702 of FISA to infringe on the constitutional rights of the American people."