On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) released the following statement on her vote to shield the people of Wyoming from being unconstitutionally spied on by the federal government after the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) included an extension to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without reforms that would strengthen privacy rights.
“I cannot knowingly support legislation that erodes the people of Wyoming’s right to privacy by rubber stamping warrantless surveillance of American citizens under FISA,” said Lummis.“I will not enable the FBI, CIA and NSA to use back door channels to take away your freedoms, which is why I could not support this extension in the NDAA.”
Throughout her more than decade long tenure in Congress, Senator Lummis has been a leading advocate for protecting the American people’s Constitutional right to privacy. Most recently, Senator Lummis cosponsored the bicameral, bipartisan Government Surveillance Accountability Act which protects the people of Wyoming from unfounded surveillance by making significant reforms to FISA and requiring warrants for government purchases of private data from data brokers. In May, Lummis joined her colleagues in sending a letter to the United States Postal Service demanding stronger protections for the people of Wyoming’s privacy when sending letters and packages. In June, Sen. Lummis also cosponsored the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Surveillance Act to create new protections against Americans’ sensitive personal information being sold or transferred to high-risk foreign countries.
