During the Pentagon appropriations process yesterday, Democrat Zoe Lofgren (CA-19) and Republican Tom Massie (KY-04) offered an amendment to prohibit the use of funds for warrantless searches of Americans' international communications and for the practice of requiring companies to install vulnerabilities in communications products or services ("backdoor searches").
This provision had been stripped from the USA FREEDOM Act in committee last month, causing civil libertarian groups to withdraw their support.
According to Marcy Wheeler, the amendment, as written, would also ban backdoor searches from the FBI and CIA as well.
It passed with a large margin of 293 to 123.
135 Republicans and 158 Democrats voted for it. 94 Republicans and 29 Democrats voted against it. One Democrat--Dan Lipinski (IL-03)--voted present.
Here are those 29 Democrats:
Ron Barber (AZ-02)
John Barrow (GA-12)
Joyce Beatty (OH-03)
Julia Brownley (CA-26)
Cheri Bustos (IL-17)
Jim Cooper (TN-05)
Jim Costa (CA-16)
John Delaney (MD-06)
Tammy Duckworth (IL-08)
Lois Frankel (FL-22)
Pete Gallego (TX-23)
Jim Himes (CT-04)
Ruben Hinojosa (TX-16)
Steny Hoyer (MD-05)
Steve Israel (NY-03)
Joe Kennedy (MA-04)
Jim Langevin (RI-02)
Sandy Levin (MI-09)
Jim Matheson (UT-04)
Patrick Murphy (FL-18)
Scott Peters (CA-52)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)
Dutch Ruppersberger (MD-02)
Adam Schiff (CA-28)
Terri Sewell (AL-07)
Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09)
Mike Thompson (CA-05)
Pete Visclosky (IN-01)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23)
I found it noteworthy that Steny Hoyer, Steve Israel, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz were all on that list.
The amendment could end up stripped from the final appropriations bill that passes via conference; however, the wide margin of the vote sends a message that the politics of the issue are changing.