at the ?nite?! ?tatea
EC 21.1515

December 13, 2017

The Honorable Paul D. Ryan The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker Minority Leader 

U.S. House of Representatives U.S. House of Representatives
H-232, United States Capitol H-204, United States Capitol
Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. Speaker and Madam Leader:

We are writing to demand that any effort to extend the FISA Amendments Act past December
31, 2017, be considered by the House as a standalone bill.

The government?s intelligence-gathering activities under the FISA Amendments Act raise
important questions about security, privacy, transparency, civil rights, constitutional law, and the
appropriate reach of government power in an age of dispersed, evolving national security threats.

The House has spent much of this year debating these questions. Two separate committees have
passed hotly debated legislation to reauthorize the FISA Amendments Act, with each bill
offering a distinct vision of what the law should look like. Outside the committees, other
legislation has been introduced to offer competing proposals for how the law should be
reformed.

We are fast approaching the law?s expiration date, and none of these bills have been considered
on the House ?oor. Meanwhile, other legislative deadlines are looming, including a government
funding deadline.

There may be temptation to attach reauthorization of the FISA Amendments Act to a large end?
of-year legislative package, but doing so would undermine representative democracy by
effectively precluding most members of Congress from being heard on the important issues it
raises and preventing the public from finding out where their representatives stand. It also could
further undermine public trust in the intelligence community by suggesting that one of its most
heavily used statutory authorities could not have been reauthorized under regular order. None of
these outcomes is desirable, and all are easily avoided by bringing reauthorization to the floor as
a standalone bill.

The House exists to debate the very sorts ofissues raised by the FISA Amendments Act, and we
insist on the opportunity to do so.

Sincerely,

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

 

 

#:249?

Ju?ln Amash (MI-O3)
of Con ress

 

 

 

   
 
       

Dave Brat VA-07)

Member of Congress

Thomas Massie (KY-04) Earl Blumenauer (OR-03)

MeMregs 

Andy Cf

MWOHW Member of Congress

Mark?Sanford (Sf/01) Alex X. Mooney 02)
Member of Congress Member of Co 

 

   
    



 

 
 

Warren Davidson (OH- 08) Andy WMD 

digress Member of ongress

Raul R. Labrador (IDCongress

ark Meadows (NC- 1 1) Scott Perry (PA- -04) 

 
  

 

 

Memb?f Con 22s 

Louie Gohmert (TX- 01)
Me ber of Congress

 

 

   

(3an Congress Member of Congress

re PolisLtCO- 02) . Diana DeGette 
mber of Congress Member of Congress



Ted S. Yoho, D.V.M. (FIPO3) ewis (MN- 02)
Mem of Con? ?ongr?g i
Roger 111mm; (TX-25) Ze f'gren (Ck-1'9
Member Congress er of Congress

Khanna (CA-17)
Member of Congress

??foc?w

 
  
   
  
   

 

 

 
   

 

 

 

Kevin Yoder (KS-03) Thomas A. arrett, Jr. 
Member of Congre Mem of ngres
M. 

 

 

Dana Rohrabacher (CA-48) Mark Pocan (WW
Member of Congress of 

   
      

Rod Blu 
Member of Congress

 

 

K?ithJ RothfusifPA 12) 
Member of Congress