{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-sens-paul-wyden-and-bipartisan-senators-call-congress-stop-massive-expansion-government/", "Sens. Paul, Wyden and Bipartisan Senators Call on Congress to Stop Massive Expansion of Government Surveillance and Hacking Power", "2016-05-19", "2016", "2016-05", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "Stopping Mass Hacking Act Reverses Disastrous Changes to Warrant Procedures; Congress Must Act or Government Will Be Able to Hack Millions of Americans\u2019 Devices with a Single Warrant, Compromising Security and Privacy\n\nWashington, D.C.- U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., today introduced the Stopping Mass Hacking (SMH) Act to protect millions of law-abiding Americans from government hacking. The Stopping Mass Hacking (SMH) Act prevents recently approved changes to Rule 41 from going into effect. The changes would allow the government to get a single warrant to hack an unlimited number of Americans\u2019 computers if their computers had been affected by criminals, possibly without notifying the victims.\n\nSens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., are original co-sponsors of the Senate bill.\n\n\u201cThis is a dramatic expansion of the government\u2019s hacking and surveillance authority. Such a substantive change with an enormous impact on Americans\u2019 constitutional rights should be debated by Congress, not maneuvered through an obscure bureaucratic process,\u201d said Sen. Wyden. \u201cUnless Congress acts before December 1, Americans\u2019 security and privacy will be thrown out the window and hacking victims will find themselves hacked again \u2013 this time by their own government.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Fourth Amendment wisely rejected general warrants and requires individualized suspicion before the government can forcibly search private information. I fear this rule change will make it easier for the government to search innocent Americans\u2019 computers and undermine the requirement for individual suspicion,\u201d said Sen. Paul.\n\n\u201cCongress must act to prevent this threat to the privacy of law abiding Americans and ensure a rule change of this magnitude has the proper oversight.\u201d said Sen. Baldwin. \u201cI am proud to join this bipartisan effort. We need to stand up to this government intrusion and protect American civil liberties and freedoms.\u201d\n\n\u201cOur law enforcement policies need to be updated to reflect 21st century realities with a process that is transparent, effective and protects our civil liberties,\u201d said Sen. Daines.\n\n\u201cThis bill reins in the government\u2019s ability to search and seize our personal electronic information. Our right to privacy doesn\u2019t end when we turn on a computer, send an email, or search the Internet,\u201d said Sen. Tester. \u201cWe must ensure that law enforcement agencies have the tools they need to keep us safe while also protecting our civil liberties, and this bill is a first step in that direction.\u201d\n\nA House companion bill is expected to be introduced soon.\n\nAt the request of the Department of Justice (DOJ) the U.S. Federal Courts recommended an administrative change to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure which were approved by the Supreme Court last month.\n\nThe amendments to Rule 41 would make it easier for DOJ to obtain warrants for remote electronic searches. The amendments would allow a single judge to issue a single warrant authorizing government hacking of an untold number of devices located anywhere in the world. The amendments would take effect on December 1, 2016 absent Congressional action.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T20:51:40Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-sens-paul-wyden-and-bipartisan-senators-call-congress-stop-massive-expansion-government/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3827141374349594, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}