Vigilant News

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Legislation

Republican Legislators Introduce Bill Defunding the World Economic Forum

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House Republicans have introduced legislation that would suspend financial support for the World Economic Forum.

“No funds available to the Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development, or any other department or agency may be used to provide funding for the World Economic Forum,” the bill reads.

Representatives Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania), Tom Tiffany (R-Wisconsin), and Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) were among those who introduced the legislation.

“The World Economic Forum doesn’t deserve one cent of American funding, and it’s past time we defund Davos,” Perry said in a press release.

Speakers at the annual conference of the WEF, held in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this week, expressed concern regarding “misinformation generated by artificial intelligence.”

Professor of Internet law at George Mason University Carl Szabo stated on Thursday that forum leaders are concerned that artificial intelligence may aid the reelection campaign of former President Donald Trump.

“The Defund Davos Act would ensure that U.S. tax dollars are not funding the World Economic Forum and their reset on our way of life. I thank Congressman Perry for leading this important effort,” Tiffany said.

Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, was invited to participate in a panel discussion on the prospects of a potential Republican presidency. He utilized the occasion to offer a critique of the WEF’s endorsement of socialism and globalism, asserting that the incoming conservative presidential administration ought to unequivocally reject every idea put forth at the organization.

Surveillance “Reform” Legislation Proposed by the House Intelligence Committee Is Deceptive at Best, Destructive at Worst

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Both the House Committee on the Judiciary (HJC) and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) marked up two bills that would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)—but in very different ways. The bills in question were H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, in HJC, and HR 6611, the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023, in HPSCI). Under a procedural rule known as “Queen of the Hill,” both measures will be presented on the House floor the following week. The bill that receives the most votes will be forwarded to the Senate for further deliberation.

Renewing any surveillance authority remains a convoluted and intricate matter; however, this decision is unambiguous: we strongly urge all Members to vote NO on H.R.6611, the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023, the bill introduced by the Intelligence Committee.

A report published by HPSCI on November 16 advocated for the reauthorization of Section 702, stressing the need for only minimal reforms. The following legislation, H.R. 6611, was as disastrous as anticipated. It would extend for an additional eight years Section 702, which authorizes mass surveillance. It would establish new authorities that have been denied by the courts despite years of pursuit by the intelligence community. It would sustain the unrestricted gathering of communications from American citizens engaged in conversations with individuals located overseas, to provide such information to domestic law enforcement. This was not the intent of this national security program, and due to a vulnerability, communications of individuals on U.S. soil should not be collected without a warrant.

If the last decade is any indication, FISA is due for reform.

To reiterate, the purpose of Section 702 was to authorize warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens overseas to gather foreign intelligence. Domestic law enforcement agencies are progressively surveilling this portion of digital communications that occur within the United States, without producing a warrant. Millions of intrusive searches for American communications, including those of dissidents, racial justice activists, 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign, journalists, and even members of Congress, have been conducted by FBI agents using the Section 702 databases.

This is not a partisan initiative, these resolutions affect us all while bolstering the surveillance state.

The HPSCI bill also includes a call “to define Electronic Communication Service Provider to include equipment.” Earlier this year, the FISA Court of Review released a highly redacted opinion documenting a fight over the government’s attempt to subject an unknown company to Section 702 surveillance. However, the court agreed that under the circumstances the company did not qualify as an “electronic communication service provider” under the law. Now, the HPSCI bill would expand that definition to include a much broader range of providers, including those who merely provide hardware through which people communicate on the Internet. Even without knowing the details of the secret court fight, this represents an ominous expansion of 702’s scope, which the committee introduced without any explanation or debate of its necessity.

In contrast, H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, a measure from the House Judiciary Committee, would prohibit warrantless backdoor searches of Section 702 databases containing communications of Americans, thereby addressing a significant issue with that legislation. In addition, this legislation would forbid law enforcement from acquiring data on Americans that would otherwise require a warrant, thus bypassing fundamental constitutional safeguards. Significantly, this legislation would additionally reestablish this authority for a limited duration of three years, affording Congress an additional chance to reassess the implementation of the reforms and propose additional modifications should the government continue to exploit the program.