URGENT: Congress pushing shady deal to pass CISA this week

For immediate release: December 7, 2015

Hey, we just got word that pro-surveillance forces in the House of Representatives are pushing hard for a backroom deal that would force a rushed vote on a final version of CISA, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, this week.

Here’s the worst part: the final version of the bill appears even more draconian than expected, with the last vestiges of privacy protections stripped out. [1]

The final language is somewhat of a “Frankenstein” bill that combines the worst aspects of several cyber bills that Congress has been considering. It’s more than 100 pages long, but Paul Ryan, the new Speaker of the House, is trying to steamroll dissenting voices and ram through a vote before anyone has even had time to read the whole thing.

Remember the PATRIOT Act? This could be even worse. But it’s also a risky play – if enough members of Congress get upset about this abusive manipulation of Congressional process, CISA could implode.

Time-sensitive: click here to tweet at Paul Ryan right now telling him not to force a vote on CISA.

Not on twitter? Call his office at: (202) 225-3031

Things are moving extremely quickly, so timing is everything. There’s no time for emails or petitions to Congress to get through right now, but we’ve been hearing more and more from staffers on Capitol Hill that they *really* notice when they get a lot of tweets about an issue.

Sometimes even just a few dozen tweets can be enough to affect a Representative’s vote.

We need to make sure that Paul Ryan gets the message that CISA is politically toxic. That’s the only way to slow it down.

But to help make that happen, we also need to get some of the members of the “Freedom Caucus,” who ostensibly oppose overly broad government surveillance, to speak up and oppose Ryan’s dirty dealing.

If you only have a second, click here to tweet at Rep.Paul Ryan to slow down CISA.

If you have two seconds, click here to also tweet at Rep. Mike McCaul, who is the other key player in these negotiations.

And if you’ve got two minutes, please go down the list below and tweet at these other key members of the House who can help stop CISA from barreling through without any meaningful review of the final text.

Did you make it through the whole list? You’re a true Internet hero.

Thanks for all that you do. We’ll keep you posted as things develop.

-Jeff at FFTF

P.S. To understand one of the less-discussed dangers of CISA, check out this CNN article about how corporations and the government collude to hide major hacks. CISA would give more companies legal immunity and cover for this type of abuse.

[1] The Hill. Cyber bill’s final language likely to anger privacy advocates. http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/262281-cyber-bills-final-language-will-anger-privacy-advocates