This week Congress has tackled two important issues that may not seem related at first: reauthorizing an expiring portion of the USA PATRIOT Act and legislating for those affected by COVID-19. But there is one common thread between them - each will have had their passage through the legislature amply lubricated by a potent dose of fear. Decisions made hastily under such pressure are often nigh impossible to reverse after the fact.

Three provisions of the Foreign International Surveillance Act (FISA) will expire on Sunday. The expiration of these provisions isn’t a surprise, but Congress has treated it as such because of its proclivity for governing by crisis. Another issue that has reverberated in the debate over the reauthorization of these provisions is the attempt by congressional leadership to shut out the voices of privacy hawks in Congress.

John Solomon in Just the News and Sara Carter in SaraACarter.com have independently concluded that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) knew that there was no improper collusion between Trump or his aides with Russia. Through extensive requests for documents created by the FBI and DOJ it is virtually certain that these organizations knew there was no collusion shortly after Trump’s inauguration in early 2017. Thus, all the congressional investigations and the Mueller investigation were most likely attempts by government agents and their political allies to cover-up wrongful spying and unmasking for political advantages in the 2016 election. This is one of the worst deliberate assaults on our Constitution and We the People in American history.