Gosar Votes Against Spy Bill, Overwhelming Majority Polled Oppose FISA
This week, I voted against legislation reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for two more years.
A few months ago, I wrote an Op-Ed expressing my concerns about reauthorizing FISA without significant reform. If you missed it, here it is!
Backup: Section 702 of FISA was enacted by Congress in 2008 to ostensibly allow the United States intelligence community, including the FBI, to surveil foreigners located abroad. Purportedly, Congress wrote this law to protect our national security by allowing spying on non-U.S. threats without a court order. However, FISA was never intended to spy on U.S. citizens.
Unfortunately, Section 702 has been controversial since its inception, and it has been highly scrutinized by civil liberties advocates and privacy rights activists.
The government’s ability to collect and analyze the communications of foreigners without a warrant has also led to the collection of communications of American citizens and raises serious concerns about the indiscriminate and broad nature of the surveillance program, further infringing on the rights of Americans.
Unless it is reauthorized by Congress, FISA is set to expire next Friday.
Now that you’re up to speed, several amendments were offered that would have reformed FISA including a commonsense amendment offered by my friend, Representative Biggs, that I voted for that would have prevented warrantless searches of Americans. Sadly, 86 Republicans and 126 Democrats inexplicably voted to allow the deep state to continue spying on Americans without a warrant by voting down this amendment.
As a result, I could not support the warrantless surveillance of American reauthorized under section 702. It is a clear overreach of authority and is a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Earlier this week and before voting, I sent a flash poll to faithful Gosar Newsletter readers asking you to share your opinion on whether FISA should be reauthorized. 2,367 individuals voted and here are the results:
🔢 2216 (96%) urged that I vote against reauthorizing FISA;
Democrats Oppose Adding Citizenship Question to Census
This week, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on which I serve passed H.R. 7109, the Equal Representation Act,legislation to add a new question to the decennial census.
❓❓Congressman Gosar: what was the question, you might ask? ❓❓
Are you a citizen? YES or NO.
Not surprisingly, every Democrat on the committee voted against this commonsense legislation.
Currently, the decennial census counts illegal aliens for purposes of reapportionment and allocating congressional seats. Thus, states that harbor illegal aliens will have their population numbers increased. With a population increase, those states may well get additional congressional seats in the House of Representatives and other states will lose seats. The surge of illegal aliens will generally benefit blue states and cause Congress to have an artificially high number of Democrat congressional districts.
Illegal immigration is a crime. Why are we awarding those who break our laws with Congressional representation? Because Democrats would rather have a wide-open southern border than a safe America. This is being done intentionally. It’s all about power.
Now that it has been voted out of committee, H.R. 7109, the Equal Representation Act, now goes to the House floor for a vote by every Member of Congress. I will be sure to keep you updated!
Congress Passes Bill Improving Access to Outdoor Recreation on Public Lands
Also this week, Congress passed H.R. 6492, the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences Act, or the EXPLORE Act. The EXPLORE Act makes it easier for every American to enjoy our beautiful public lands and waters by promoting recreation opportunities for active service members and veterans, creating new long-distance bike trails, improving access for sportsmen and women, streamlining permitting for outfitters and guides, protecting rock climbing in iconic places, modernizing campgrounds, and much more. Our nation is blessed with some of the most beautiful lands and waters in the world, it is only right that Congress makes them available for all Americans to enjoy.
🚴 🎣 🛶 🏃♀️ 🧗 🏂 ⛺🌲
Congress Passes Legislation Long Championed by Gosar to Build Veterans Center in Gila County
Completing this land transfer will open the door for new support services for veterans in northern Arizona. For years, I have long-championed this bipartisan cause and I am very pleased that this effort is gaining momentum.
Gosar Hosts Successful Military Academy Day
Thank you to all the High School Juniors, Seniors and parents who attended my Military Academy Day earlier this week to learn more about how to receive a congressional nomination to a United States military service academy. I am very impressed with the qualifications of the students and wish them all the best as they pursue an appointment.
It’s Mail Time!
I’ve received a ton of mail each week and I appreciate hearing from everyone, including those who disagree. Here are samples of some of the letters sent in this week:
📨 Frank Z. from Prescott, AZ is a frequent critic who shared this incredibly intelligent comment this week 😂:
MORON!!!!
👉 Frank, thanks for the very “thoughtful” remark. I will share with you the same advice I used to give my children: act your age, not your shoe size!
📨 Robert M. from Goodyear, AZ writes✏:
I am not in favor of the renewal of FISA and can’t believe Mike Johnson cast the deciding vote for it. We need to sharply curtail the power of the federal government to spy on US citizens since it’s clear that the government is incapable of keeping politics out of their decisions.
👉 Dear Robert, I won’t sugar-coat it: I too am in disbelief of the vote. As I noted above, there were several good amendments that would have reformed FISA, none more important than an amendment that, if passed, would have required a warrant to spy on Americans. It failed, 212-212 was the final tally. In Congress, a tie means the vote fails. There are no tiebreakers. One additional vote was all that was needed, yet the Speaker voted with the UNIPARTY causing the amendment to fail.
📨 Cynthia W. from Kingman, AZ shares, in part, this note:
Anyone harmed by the COVID vaccine should be allowed to be compensated by the manufacturer of the product. We must hold these companies responsible. Right now, Americans cannot sue a manufacturer or health provider if they or a family member are injured or killed by a COVID product. There have been well over one million claims of injury and death from COVID products reported. The COVID shot – in just over three years – racked up as many VAERS reports as all other vaccines combined since 1988. COVID products wouldn’t exist if manufacturers could be sued for harm.
The CDC continues to recommend COVID shots for our children, even though many countries, including Britain, France, Japan, Australia, and India, decided not to recommend boosters, or any shot at all for healthy children. This issue is not going away, and Americans are being harmed by not having the constitutional protection of trial by jury.
👉 Cynthia, there is ample evidence of the existence of injuries caused by vaccines. Unfortunately, the Big Pharma lobby has prevented the U.S. government from collecting quality statistics of vaccine injuries, instead relying on the inadequate Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting system, which is compiled from self-reporting.
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 makes it almost impossible for those harmed by vaccines to sue Big Pharma in court.
I don’t believe that pharmaceutical companies should get a special carve-out. Most producers of other market materials can be sued for defects caused by their products. That is why I am considering action, including legislation, to level the playing field by making vaccine manufacturers responsible for the injuries and harms caused by their vaccines.
Tweet of the Week:
Photo of the Week:
📸 Bart Anderson from Bullhead City, AZ shares this great photo he snapped in Golden Valley on a recent drive. Fantastic photo, Bart. Thanks for sharing.
❓Do you have photography skills? Do you want the chance for your photograph to be featured as our “Picture of the Week?” If so, send your best shots of our great state along with a brief description to Anthony.foti@mail.house.gov. Remember to include your name and where you live.
Warning!! The Gosar Weekly Newsletter is meant for discerning readers with above average intelligence. If you are a reporter, it probably means you are in over your head already. We link to interesting stories. We get stories a couple different ways: Google alerts, a third-party aggregator and sometimes readers send stuff. We don’t vouch for every publication or every author. If we link to a story, it is because of that story. The views expressed in any of the publications do not represent any promotion, endorsement or reflection of Congressman Gosar’s views. While we try our best, we cannot guarantee every news organization spouting hatred, animosity or divisiveness will be filtered from appearing in the Gosar Weekly Newsletter. We will endeavor to prevent that from happening by never linking to Fake News organizations including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Rolling Stone, the Arizona Republic, the Arizona Mirror, Media Matters or the New Republic.
