Poe-Lofgren Bill Against Backdoor Spying is Next Step for Comprehensive Surveillance Reform

Today, Representative Poe (R, TX-2), Representative Lofgren (D, CA-19), and Representative Massie (R, KY-4) introduced the End Warrantless Surveillance of Americans Act (H.R. 2233). New America’s Open Technology Institute strongly supports the End Warrantless Surveillance of Americans Act because it would create new important privacy protections and enhance Internet security--both by closing legal backdoors into Americans’ private data and by prohibiting technical backdoors into our personal devices and communications.

H.R. 2233 would require that the government obtain a court order before conducting “backdoor” searches for information about Americans in databases of communications that were collected pursuant to authorities intended for foreign intelligence surveillance, such as Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act or Executive Order 12333. It would also prohibit the government from requiring tech companies to weaken the security of their products and services in order to facilitate government surveillance. OTI testified at a Congressional hearing just last week on why such technical “backdoors” are a bad idea.

This bill is similar to an amendment that was introduced during the House Judiciary Committee’s markup of the USA FREEDOM Act surveillance reform bill last week, though it is stronger since its protections extend to EO 12333 surveillance. OTI strongly supported that amendment, along with a coalition of 60 civil society organizations, businesses, and whistleblowers. A majority of the Committee also supported the substance of the amendment, but voted against it for fear it would endanger the passage of USA FREEDOM. However, Committee leaders promised to take up the issue again in the future, and today’s bill is following up on that promise.

H.R. 2233 is also similar to Representative Massie and Representative Lofgren’s amendment to last year’s Department of Defense appropriations bill, which would have closed the Section 702 backdoor search loophole and prohibited the government from requiring companies to build “surveillance backdoors” into their products. OTI strongly supported that amendment, and helped to organize a diverse coalition of civil society and companies that supported it. Though the amendment passed the House overwhelmingly with a vote of 293-123, it was stripped out of the final bill and never became law.

“If USA FREEDOM Act is the first step toward comprehensive surveillance reform, then the End Warrantless Surveillance Act is the next,” said Kevin Bankston, Policy Director at New America’s Open Technology Institute.“Support for the reforms in this bill has echoed through the halls of the House for over a year. Now it’s up to House leaders to act on their members’ and the American people’s demands that Congress protect the security of their personal devices and block warrantless searches of their private data. We need to shut the surveillance backdoor, not only to protect our privacy but to rebuild the consumer trust that is necessary for our tech industry to succeed globally--trust that has been seriously eroded in the two years since the NSA’s mass surveillance programs were revealed.”