The Reform Government Surveillance coalition (RGS) today released a statement following the House Judiciary Committee’s markup of H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, which reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

“RGS applauds provisions to ban ‘abouts’ collection, which conforms with the current practice within the intelligence community. RGS is also pleased to see provisions to strengthen the declassification review process of FISA court documents and increase amici participation in FISA court proceedings, helping ensure strong third-party oversight. These amendments will provide greater clarity and trust around the privacy protections that currently exist.

“We hope that as a bill moves forward, it will include codification of the lists of ‘legitimate objectives’ and ‘prohibited objectives’ from the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Executive Order 14086, which are already in force in U.S. law.

“RGS looks forward to continuing to work with Congress to increase privacy protections for all users that depend on our members’ services across the globe.”