1. United States
2. Fla.
3. Letter

Vote against the FISA bill that allows the government to spy on American citizens! How does the FISA bill spy on American citizens? The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), particularly under the controversial Section 702, allows the U.S. government to monitor American citizens through two primary mechanisms: "incidental collection" and "backdoor searches." While the law technically targets non-U.S. citizens abroad, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and civil liberties groups like the ACLU note that Americans are frequently swept into this surveillance. NPR The bill facilitates spying through the following methods: Incidental Collection: When a foreign target communicating with someone in the U.S. is monitored, the Brennan Center for Justice explains that the American’s phone calls, emails, and text messages are "incidentally" swept into government databases without a warrant. Warrantless "Backdoor Searches": Once information is collected, the FBI, NSA, and CIA can perform "U.S. person queries." According to The Guardian, this allows agents to search the database for specific Americans' identifiers (like names or email addresses) without a probable-cause warrant. Mass Data Compulsion: The FBI can compel U.S. communication service providers—such as Google, Verizon, and AT&T—to hand over data for these foreign targets, which naturally includes interactions with Americans. Upstream Collection: The NSA also collects communications as they cross the "backbone of the internet," monitoring data directly from physical network infrastructure. Expanded Target Definition: Recent updates, such as the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), have expanded the definition of entities that must assist in surveillance, potentially including data centers or even commercial landlords. Brennan Center for Justice Recent Context on Abuses Government audits and FISA Court opinions have revealed that these powers have been misused to search for the private communications of U.S. senators, political protesters, journalists, and thousands of political donors. While the FBI reported a 94% decrease in these searches after implementing new internal reforms, lawmakers remain divided over whether to require a formal warrant for all U.S. person queries. Brennan Center for Justice