Press Releases

Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) joined Congressman Justin Amash (R-MI), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers (D-MI), Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) in introducing an amendment to limit the National Security Agency’s overly broad collection of surveillance data. This amendment, offered to H.R. 2397, the FY14 Defense Appropriations bill, would have prohibited the National Security Agency (NSA) to use funds for telephone meta-data collection unless that person is a subject of an NSA investigation.  Unfortunately, this amendment failed with a vote of 205 to 217.

"I am proud to stand with Representatives Amash, Conyers, Massie and Mulvaney in offering this common-sense bipartisan amendment that would protect our privacy rights and our security,” said Rep. Polis. “Our amendment would have ended the NSA's overbroad collection of Americans' information by limiting the FISA court's collection of telephone records to only those records that pertain to a person who is actually the subject of an investigation. We should gather information about potential terrorists, but there is no reason that the NSA needs the personal information of our friends and neighbors who are not even under any investigation. The government’s overly broad collection of telephone meta-data began as part of the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping programs under the Patriot Act, which is one reason I have been a vocal opponent of the Patriot Act. However, I believe that even many Americans who supported the Patriot Act never intended that it would allow for the indiscriminate collection of Americans’ telephone calls to their families, colleagues, and friends."

Congressman Polis is a strong advocate of privacy protections and has been critical of the Patriot Act and laws that have been over broadly interpreted in violation of the civil liberties of Americans. Working alongside both Democrats and Republicans, Congressman Polis is also a co-sponsor of H.R. 2399, the LIBERT-E Act, which would prevent the mass collection of records of innoncent Americans and provide for greater accountability and transparency in the implementation of the USA PATRIOT Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.