🔒Local groups urge CT delegation to back surveillance law reforms

As Congress gears up this week to consider renewing a warrantless surveillance law, more than a dozen grassroots groups and nonprofits across Connecticut signed a letter calling on the state's congressional delegation to push for reforms related to data collection. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, expires next week unless it's reauthorized. But it has come under bipartisan scrutiny regarding privacy rights and Fourth Amendment concerns that are heightened for Democrats during the Trump administration. The program allows the U.S. to monitor foreigners outside of the U.S. without obtaining a warrant and is largely used to help with counterterrorism efforts. It has been periodically renewed with bipartisan support since it was first enacted in 2008. The letter calls on the all-Democratic delegation to support reauthorization only if it includes certain reforms. It also singles out U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee who is one of the main players at the center of a revived debate on the controversial policy. On top of the years-long push by reformers to require warrants to search any information incidentally collected on Americans, critics also want to tackle what they call the "data broker loophole." It refers to the collection of commercial information by third-party data brokers that private entities and the government can purchase. The Connecticut groups echoed another letter from over 100 national groups. Both argue the collection by data brokers "facilitates mass surveillance and circumvents FISA reforms Congress enacted in 2015 to prohibit domestic bulk data collection." The Supreme Court ruled in 2018 the government needs a warrant to get bulk information. The FBI recently confirmed it is buying commercially available data such as location history. Himes has pushed back against the existence of a data broker loophole directly related to FISA 702, arguing there are "misconceptions" about a key intelligence program. "In 2024, Representatives Larson, Courtney, Hayes, DeLauro, and Himes, along with Senator Blumenthal, voted to reauthorize FISA without addressing the loophole, voting against either an amendment or standalone legislation. We urge them to reverse course in the strongest terms," the open letter reads, pointing to support for such reforms by officials like Connecticut Attorney General William Tong. "Mass surveillance is far more dangerous in 2026 than it was in 2024, and the Trump Administration cannot be trusted with that power," the letter continues. The full list of signatories includes: the Indivisible chapters of Fairfield County and Norwalk, Make the Road CT, the Connecticut High School Democrats, Yankee National Party CT, QuitGPT, Bridgeport Resists, Sunrise New Haven, Danbury Area Justice Network, Danbury Unites for Immigrants, Muslim Justice Center, Extinction Rebellion Southwest Connecticut, and 50501 CT, which has organized protests across the country in Trump's second term. Others can still sign the petition. Nearly all of Connecticut’s delegation supported FISA 702's last reauthorization in 2024. At that time, all five members in the House approved the two-year renewal along with reforms. But there was a split in the Senate: Richard Blumenthal supported it, while Chris Murphy opposed it. With the House returning from recess on Tuesday night, Congress has less than a week before the law expires on April 20. The House could take it up as early as Wednesday. Now that President Donald Trump supports its renewal without changes, Republicans leaders want a clean 18-month reauthorization. Himes has been pushing for his Democratic colleagues to get behind a short-term extension of 702 that would allow more time to negotiate reforms but avoid a lapse in the program. Critics, meanwhile, want him and other Democratic leaders to exert any leverage they have to address changes before the vote. On a Monday night caucus call with House Democrats, Himes said he was working on some changes to FISA 702 with another congressman, according to Politico. If Republicans can't pass the 18-month reauthorization, then they might include those reforms as an amendment. But Himes has also argued the 702 program doesn’t "have anything to do with the acquisition of commercially available data. There may be a data broker loophole in some other legislation, but it’s not in 702." Earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, said she is still weighing her position on the latest iteration of FISA 702's reauthorization. "I believe that national security and the privacy of American citizens must both be protected, and I am continuing to evaluate the proposed FISA reauthorization bill with those goals in mind," DeLauro said in a recent statement to the Connecticut Mirror. "The Trump Administration must be reined in so that American citizens are not in fear of government overreach." DeLauro is part of the nearly 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, which took a formal position of opposing Section 702 of FISA "without dramatic reforms." She is the only member of Connecticut’s delegation to belong to the group. The divide on this issue has been longstanding and doesn’t cut through traditional party lines. But this year, those concerns have been magnified for a growing number of congressional Democrats as well as for constituents back at home. "The authorization is complicated this time around by the Trump administration’s constant lawlessness and the suspicion and lack of trust that generates," Himes said in a recent interview with CT Mirror. Section 702 allows the targeting of non-U.S. persons "who are reasonably believed to be outside the United States" to collect foreign intelligence information. Electronic communication service providers like telecommunications companies must assist in the collection of that information. They turn over records consisting of communications like phone calls, messages and emails to government agencies. One of the biggest consequences is the collection of the communications of Americans. If a resident interacted with someone surveilled under the 702 program, that information was likely picked up and stored in a database that government officials can search without warrants in certain instances. That has prompted constitutional concerns around the Fourth Amendment, which prevents unreasonable search and seizure. The House is expected to take up FISA 702 later this week. Republican leaders will try to do this through passing a rule, a procedural vote that sets up debate before final passage. In a rules vote, the majority is usually expected to pass it on their own without help from Democrats in the minority. That means Republicans will need to lock up votes within their own party, with only a couple of votes to spare given their ultra-slim majority. If that strategy falters, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., could decide to pass a FISA 702 reauthorization through a suspension vote. Instead of needing a simple majority, the House could avoid a rule but require lawmakers to clear a two-thirds threshold. That would shift the pressure onto Democrats to come up with the rest of the votes. But it remains unclear how many would renew the program this time around. "Now, we ask you, our elected representatives, to join the struggle," the letter from the Connecticut coalition reads. "Defend the Fourth Amendment from mass warrantless surveillance and defend our democracy from technological tyranny."