Today, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) introduced the Intelligence Community Authorities Clarification Act. The Intelligence Community (IC) – including the CIA, National Security Agency, National Counterterrorism Center and more – is designed to combat foreign adversaries and threats, such as terrorist organizations. Unfortunately, the Biden administration is turning the massive powers of the IC inward, toward the American people.
This legislation will put a wall between U.S. intelligence agencies and U.S. citizens, preventing the IC from spying on Americans.
“I will not allow President Biden to weaponize intelligence agencies against American citizens,” said Rep. Stewart. “I believe that whether someone liked an allegedly offensive Facebook post, attended a political rally, or watched a certain news program may become the driving force of who is targeted and monitored. This is not a slippery slope – it is the edge of a cliff, and it is potentially fatal to our freedoms. If we do not act, it will break the bipartisan consensus supporting the all-important mission of the IC, destroy public trust, and ultimately increase the opportunity for foreign adversaries to divide us. America’s national security is too important to fall victim to partisanship.”
This bill makes two changes to the National Security Act of 1947. First, it will add a new section that explicitly bans the IC from conducting any surveillance activity that is unrelated to foreign intelligence or counterintelligence. Second, it will clarify terms used in the National Security Act to remove ambiguities which have been claimed by certain authorities of the IC. Namely, it limits “intelligence” to mean only “foreign intelligence and counterintelligence.”
