An open letter to U.S. House leaders to prohibit mass surveillance

The below letter was sent on December 4, 2014 from a coalition which included the Libertarian Party to U.S. House Representatives Boehner and Pelosi. 

 

The Honorable John Boehner, Speaker of the House                                

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader   

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC  20515

Dear Speaker Boehner and Democratic Leader Pelosi:

Last night, the undersigned groups learned of a decision by the House leadership to remove a critical surveillance reform amendment from the House-passed Fiscal Year 2015 Defense Department appropriations. The amendment would curtail some of the most egregious surveillance abuses by the National Security Agency (NSA).

That amendment, sponsored by Rep. Tom Massie and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, passed overwhelmingly with 293 votes on June 19. It remains the only NSA reform measure to pass either chamber since the revelations of NSA’s surveillance abuses became public in June 2013. Failing to include this amendment in the forthcoming FY15 omnibus will send a clear message to Americans that Congress does not care if the NSA searches their stored communications or if the government pressures American technology companies to build vulnerabilities into their products that assist in NSA surveillance.

These actions come at a tremendous cost to American privacy and American jobs. We urge you to put the rights and the economic security of Americans first and retain this amendment in any final omnibus spending bill sent to the Senate.

Sincerely,