“I HAVE A history of being the only vote that was a ‘no,’” says Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.). “I’ve developed some trust with my constituents on those lone votes.”
In the second episode of Reason’s new video podcast Just Asking Questions, Massie joined hosts Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe in mid-December to talk about his recent votes against aid to Ukraine and Israel and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Reform and Reauthorization Act, as well as his attempt to force an in-person congressional vote on a $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill in March 2020, a move that prompted former President Donald Trump to label Massie “a third-rate grandstander.”
Reason: In light of the vote on the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act and the reauthorization of Section 702, which essentially allows the government to surveil communications between American citizens and foreign targets without a warrant, there is a push to attach it to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with a temporary extension. What is at stake for Americans?
Massie: We’re not trying to eliminate the FISA 702 program. It was established to allow our intelligence agencies to spy on foreigners without a warrant. In order to qualify to be spied on without a warrant, you have to be outside of the country and you have to be not an American citizen. If you’re inside the country or if you’re an American citizen outside of the country, you can’t be spied on by this program. Sounds great, right? But we’ve got 250,000 people on that list that we’re collecting information on.
If you talk to a businessperson in France, for instance, your emails may get caught up in this data collection. What they’ve been doing is going into this giant ball of data and they put in your name and search it without a warrant, without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. They are using this not to investigate suspects, but to create suspects.
Let’s say that you are at a protest
