The Gateway Pundit reported last week that the House of Representatives passed legislation to continue their warrantless spying (H.R. 7888) on American citizens and give themselves a corrupt carveout from surveillance after hitting a snag earlier that week. They then passed a measure to Table the Motion to Reconsider the legislation on Monday.
The Democrat-run Senate unsurprisingly followed suit just after midnight Saturday, passing the spying bill, which will extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for two additional years, just minutes after it was scheduled to expire. The legislation now goes to Joe Biden’s desk, who will sign it into law.
NEW: Senate passes bill renewing key FISA surveillance power moments after it expires
The vote is 60-34.
Goes to Biden.
The chamber defeated a series of bipartisan amendments to expand civil liberties and privacy safeguards.
w/ @frankthorp @ryanobles:https://t.co/oJ0FZshtI1
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 20, 2024
The vote was 60-34. Via Senate.gov, here are the senators who voted to betray the Constitution.
As one can see, the 30 “Republicans” who voted for H.R. 7888 were: Barrasso, Boozman, Britt, Budd, Cassidy, Collins, Cornyn, Cotton, Crapo, Ernst, Fischer, Graham, Grassley, Hyde-Smith, Kennedy, Lankford, McConnell, Moran, Mullin, Murkowski, Ricketts, Risch, Romney, Rounds, Rubio, Sullivan, Thune, Tillis, Wicker, and Young.
Before the final vote, the Senate defeated six amendments attempting to expand civil liberties in the process. This included an amendment offered by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) requiring the federal government to obtain a warrant from the FISA Court before spying on Americans’ private communications, which failed 42-50.
42-50: Senate defeated Sen. Durbin’s (D-IL) amendment to the FISA bill requiring the gov't to obtain a warrant from the FISA Court (FISC) before reviewing the contents of Americans' private communications.A similar amdt by Rep. Biggs (R-AZ) failed in the House on 212-212 tie vote. https://t.co/t6E952vYX6 pic.twitter.com/qsnih1fVlZ
— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) April 20, 2024
As Gateway Pundit readers know, a similar bill failed in the House by a 212-212 vote.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gave a gloating speech on the Senate floor after the despicable bill’s passage.
“In the nick of time, bipartisanship has prevailed here in the Senate,” Schumer crowed. “It wasn’t easy, people had many different views, but we all know one thing: letting FISA expire would have been dangerous.”
“It’s an important part of our national security to stop acts of terror, drug trafficking, and violent extremism,” he continued. “Thank you to all my Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their good work in getting this done.”
As previously reported by Jim Hoft, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) revealed that Congress gave its members a special carve out in the FISA bill.
Via the legislation, here is the special gift that members of Congress are giving themselves:
Requirement: The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall promptly notify appropriate congressional leadership of any query conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation using a query term that is reasonably believed to be the name or other personally identifying information of a member of Congress, and shall also notify the member who is the subject of such query.
Congress gives itself a carve-out in the reauthorization of FISA 702 warrantless spying on Americans.
The bill requires the FBI to notify and seek consent from Congress before violating the privacy of Congressmen.
This will persuade many members of Congress to vote yes. pic.twitter.com/usKVeNnq3b
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 9, 2024
The post JUST IN: Senate Passes Bill to Renew FISA Warrantless Spy Program 60-34, Sending the Tyrannical Legislation to Biden’s Desk – Here are the 30 “Republicans” Who Voted Yes appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
