Commitment kind: unknown. Promised action: not established. Promised outcome: not established. Deadline: unknown; not assumed expired.
Occurrences
Senator Lee believes the federal government must follow warrant requirements enshrined in the Fourth Amendment to protect Americans against unauthorized government surveillance and preserve the civil liberties granted by our Constitution.
Lee commits to requiring warrant protections against unauthorized federal surveillance of Americans.
unverified · Source version 64035 · locator unknown
CORNYN: “It’s been about three months and three days since Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has expired and not been reauthorized by Congress.”
Unverified model/legacy excerpt; not proof. AI summary (separate from source): Within the lookback window, an official Senate statement described Section 702 as expired and not reauthorized, indicating Congress had not enacted a durable warrant-requirement reform package.
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Existing law allows Section 702 collection to continue under an order from the FISA Court for another year, even without reauthorization. Congress can—and must—take the time to get this right. We must finally fix the fundamental, indefensible flaw at the heart of FISA—warrantless surveillance of American citizens.”
Unverified model/legacy excerpt; not proof. AI summary (separate from source): The Senate Judiciary release states that Section 702 collection could continue under FISA Court certification despite expiration, and frames warrantless surveillance of Americans as still needing legislative repair.
But a key objection from Republicans who blocked the reauthorization is that the law can be used to spy on Americans without a warrant. The seven Republicans who voted with Democrats were Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Rick Scott of Florida, John Kennedy of Louisiana and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
Fetched verbatim passage. AI summary (separate from source): Reporting tied Lee to a vote blocking a Section 702 extension over warrantless spying concerns; that is concrete effort, but not enactment of the promised warrant requirement.
Mr. Lee (for himself and Mr. Durbin) introduced the following bill; which was read the first time, Read the second time and placed on the calendar
Fetched verbatim passage. AI summary (separate from source): GovInfo shows Lee sponsored the SAFE Act and that it reached the Senate calendar, documenting legislative effort without enacted status.
``(2) Prohibition on warrantless access to the communications and other information of united states persons and persons located in the united states.--
Fetched verbatim passage. AI summary (separate from source): The SAFE Act text directly targets warrantless access to U.S.-person communications, aligning with the promise as an attempted statutory reform.
The bill requires the federal government to get a warrant to access Americans’ private communications gathered under Section 702, with important exceptions for emergency situations.
Fetched verbatim passage. AI summary (separate from source): Lee’s office described the Government Surveillance Reform Act as requiring warrants for access to Americans’ Section 702 communications and banning warrantless data-broker purchases, showing additional effort toward the commitment.