The Moore You Know: April 5 - April 19, 2024

The Fourth Amendment is not a suggestion

The Deep State wants to throw out the Constitution and spy on you whenever they feel like it, and last week the Uniparty worked against regular Americans to help them do it. 

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was meant to protect Americans from foreign adversaries but has instead been used to violate Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights and spy on them hundreds of thousands of times. The Fourth Amendment, which says the government must get a warrant before conducting searches and seizures, is not a suggestion. It’s part of what makes America great.

In 2022 alone, FISA was used by the intelligence community 278,000 times for improper searches on American citizens.  

The victims of these improper searches were not limited to one political party or ideology. They range from 19,000 donors to a conservative Congressional campaign to 100 Black Lives Matter protesters. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has admitted their employees had no reasonable basis to expect they would return foreign intelligence or evidence of crime from these searches.  

According to the FBI, their mission is to “protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.” Instead, they’re ignoring the Constitution and targeting the American people. 

Despite several years of “correctional training” for employees, the FBI continues to conduct thousands of improper searches. We know that the FBI relentlessly made FISA queries on the Trump campaign in 2016. Without reform, how do we know they won’t do the same in this upcoming election?  

As I travel across my district, the number one concern I hear from constituents is the weaponization of the federal government, and FISA abuse is just another disappointing example. That is why I supported many of my House Judiciary Committee and House Freedom Caucus colleagues and voted against a reauthorization of FISA without a warrant requirement.  

I refuse to support legislation that allows the intelligence community, who has recently spent its resources weaponizing against pro-life grandmothers, concerned parents at school board meetings, Catholics, and Biden's political opponents, to freely spy on American citizens. 

I am disappointed that the effort to reform FISA and respect the Constitution did not have more support in the House. A two-year reauthorization of FISA without reform now awaits a vote in the Senate.  

I will always vote to protect your liberty and put America first. 

If you need help from my office with the VA, IRS, or another federal agency, or if we can help you with a government service like processing a passport request, I hope you will reach out to us. We’ve resolved over 4,600 cases since I took office in 2021. Visit one of my offices in Wetumpka, Dothan, Andalusia, Troy, or Washington, call us at 334-478- 6330, or visit http://barrymoore.house.gov to learn how we can help.  

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