The federal budget, borrowing, foreign policy, spending, transgenderism, abortion, global warming, race, special rights for some groups and more.
These are all issues on which Republicans and Democrats are deeply divided these days.
But there’s one issue one which there’s bipartisanship: Spying.
And that very bipartisanship has prompted advocates for the Joe Biden White House to fight tooth-and-nail to defeat congressional plans.
This is according to a commentary by Bob Goodlatte, who represented Virginia’s 6th District as a Republican in Congress from 1993 to 2019, and Matthew Silver, deputy director of Federal Government Affairs at Americans for Prosperity and previously served as legislative director for Rep. Warren Davidson.
They explained the Biden administration’s fear of two-party agreement at Real Clear Wire.
They explained that Americans are tired of, and members of Congress want to rein in, “intrusive and unconstitutional surveillance by the FBI, CIA, NSA, and other federal agencies that rifle through our emails, text messages, and phone calls without a warrant.”
They noted the bipartisan nature of the concern and then warned that has prompted “former intelligence agency officials to carry the Biden administration’s water by lobbying hard to kill this reform-minded coalition. Stewart Baker and Michael Ellis, lawyers who served in the National Security Agency and the National Security Council, warn conservatives that ‘left-wing activists’ are tricking conservatives. How are they tricking conservatives? By working across the aisle to support reforms that would force federal agencies to get a warrant before searching through American citizens’ personal communications and information,” the column explained.
They called the campaign by Baker and Ellis a “clumsy attempt to paint surveillance reform as a ‘left-wing’ agenda,” and an “insult to the countless conservatives who support strong reforms.”
For example, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., “not usually referred to as a dupe of ‘left-wing activists,’” said recently, “How much longer must we watch the FBI brazenly spy on Americans before we strip it of its unchecked authority?”
They explained, “Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also typically not seen as a pawn of the left – recently referred to an unsealed court document showing that the FBI brazenly abused Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This statute, designed by Congress to enable surveillance of foreign targets to catch terrorists and spies, has instead been used to spy on millions of Americans over the last few years.”
The commentary noted targets of the Deep State have included “19,000 donors to an unnamed congressional campaign; people who came to the FBI to perform repairs; victims who approached the FBI to report crimes; business, religious, and community leaders who apply to participate in the FBI’s ‘Citizens Academy’; college students participating in a ‘Collegiate Academy’” and many more.
The authors warn Baker and Ellis complain that requiring a warrant is a “bad idea” in their scheme that “effectively discards the Fourth Amendment.”
Baker and Ellis also, the commentary explains, are frightened of relying on “the same broken court process” that has been abused by Democrats in the past. That is the FISA court through which Democrats in Washington in the 2016 election made up statements about Trump and Russia to get permission to spy on his campaign.
“Their conclusion is that we therefore should allow the FBI to surveil Americans under Section 702 without even obtaining a warrant or judicial review. That’s like saying the best way to put out a fire is to add gasoline,” the commentary said.
