"A pair of House lawmakers wants to completely repeal the Patriot Act and other legal provisions to dramatically rein in American spying." — The Hill, 3/24/15
Since 2001, the government has used the Patriot Act to claim enormous, terrifying new powers to spy on Americans.
And with some of the Patriot Act's most controversial provisions set to expire this spring — including one that the NSA claims lets it collect private data about all of our phone calls — we have a big opportunity to put a stop to widespread, indiscriminate surveillance.
Many of these provisions were only supposed to be authorized for a number of years. Unfortunately, Congress has allowed itself to be backed into a corner on rubberstamping reauthorization of the law year after year.
We can't let that happen again. Click here and tell Congress we need to repeal the Patriot Act, not rubberstamp its reauthorization.
After the leaks by Edward Snowden, even the original Patriot Act author Rep. James Sensenbrenner has said that the authority claimed by the government to spy on Americans far exceeds the intent of the law.
Good news: last week, Representatives Mark Pocan and Thomas Massie introduced the Surveillance State Repeal Act, which would repeal the Patriot Act and restore our constitutionally protected civil liberties.
This is big. Demand Progress is joining with CREDO Action to gather signatures in support of SSRA — can you add your name to our petition?
Sure, getting a full repeal of the Patriot Act will be an uphill battle. But Congress won’t move to restore our civil liberties unless we demand it.
Ask Congress to support the Surveillance State Repeal Act — it takes just a second.
Let’s make the Patriot Act history.
—Demand Progress
