Some lawmakers want to let the FBI monitor your Internet and email activity — without oversight

[Commentary] In response to June’s mass shooting in Orlando (FL), Congress has been debating various proposals to combat home-grown terrorism. You’ve probably heard the most about measures to restrict gun purchases. But here’s what you may have missed: Lawmakers are also pushing to expand the FBI’s surveillance powers. And in a big way.

Sens John McCain (R-AZ) and Richard Burr (R-NC) offered an amendment eight days after the Orlando shooting that would allow FBI agents — without a court order — to capture a person’s email logs, IP address and Internet browsing history. To obtain a user’s records from a service provider, FBI investigators would need only their field supervisor to issue an administrative subpoena, known as a national security letter (NSL). The McCain-Burr amendment fell just two votes short of the 60 needed for final action. But the Senate will very likely try again. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has reserved the option to reintroduce the McCain-Burr amendment at a later date. Two other Senate bills under consideration contain nearly identical language. So will the United States authorize the FBI to monitor Internet and email activity at its own discretion? If Congress really wants to prevent the FBI from using national security letters to collect and keep private records at its own discretion, as broadly as it wishes, for any purpose, it must write minimization requirements into law.

[EJ Graff is a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University. William Bendix is assistant professor of political science at Keene State College. Paul J. Quirk is professor and Phil Lind Chair in US Politics at the University of British Columbia.]