Blumenthal Statement on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Reauthorization

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following statement in opposition to legislation reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act:

“We need a limited and scrutinized surveillance system to protect our nation. But this bill fails to adopt reforms I’ve called for that protect against abuse and excesses in the FISA Court system. I proposed reforms under President Obama to provide for court review involving checks and oversight – safeguards against factual and legal errors that imperil individual liberties. Some of these recommendations were previously adopted and some are adopted in this bill, but it still falls short of sufficiently protecting constitutional rights. As a former U.S. Attorney and Connecticut Attorney General, I am well familiar with how law enforcement needs and seeks warrants for surveillance that can be challenged for their inadequate justification on facts and law. This bill fails to produce similar adversarial scrutiny and transparency in the FISA Courts. A better bill is within reach.”

Blumenthal first introduced legislation to reform the FISA courts in 2013, seeking to properly balance the need to protect national security with constitutional and statutory requirements to safeguard individual rights to privacy and liberty. One bill – the FISA Court Reform Act of 2013 – would create a Special Advocate with the power to argue in the FISA courts on behalf of the right to privacy and other individual rights of the American people. The second – the FISA Judge Selection Reform Act – would reform how judges are appointed to the FISA courts to ensure that the court is geographically and ideologically diverse and better reflects the full diversity of perspectives on questions of national security, privacy, and liberty.

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