Kiggans votes for FISA reform

Congresswoman Jen Kiggans (VA-02) voted for H.R. 7888, the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act. This important bill reforms the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to increase transparency and oversight and protect Americans’ privacy rights while preserving FISA Section 702 as a critical national security tool. In total, the legislation enacts 56 new privacy protections, which is the most extensive and transformative reform to the FBI and FISA process since the statute was first enacted.

Title Seven of FISA, which expires on April 19 of this year, provides critical tools to our national security and intelligence apparatus to help protect the homeland. In particular, Title Seven allows surveillance of, and the collection of intelligence about, non-U.S. citizens located outside the U.S. who intend harm, including terrorists, narcotraffickers, and other criminals. Terror attacks have been prevented, terrorists located, and criminals prosecuted as a result of intelligence collected under Title Seven. Despite these successes, Title Seven authorities have been abused by bad actors and are in need of reform to prevent further misuse.

“As a former Naval officer, I know that our adversaries are always looking for new ways to attack our country and gather intelligence on our citizens at home and abroad,” said Congresswoman Kiggans. “We need to have a system of deterrence, protection, and response that limits the possibility of terrorist attacks while ensuring the government doesn’t have a blank check to gather information on American citizens. I was proud to vote for this bill to provide our Intelligence Community with the tools it needs to protect our nation from foreign threats while also protecting Americans’ civil liberties.”

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