Chairman Green, Bishop, Pfluger Demand Answers on Possible Violations of Americans’ Civil Liberties from the Department of Homeland Security’s Domestic Intelligence Program
March 20, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following reports of possible violations of Americans’ civil liberties in a domestic intelligence program run by the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN), Oversight, Accountability, and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Dan Bishop (R-NC), and Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman August Pfluger (R-TX) sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, demanding answers and a Congressional briefing on the department’s Overt Human Intelligence Collection Program. Read more in POLITICO.
In the letter, the members wrote, “OHIC, a domestic intelligence program, raises serious concerns about the Department’s overreach of its statutory mandate and potential violations of Americans’ fundamental civil liberties.”
The letter continued, “These reports are even more concerning when viewed in the context of the Department’s now-scuttled, Disinformation Governance Board (Board), created under the Biden Administration to police alleged disinformation and misinformation.”
The letter concluded, “There appears a pattern of mission creep and overreach by the Department emerging at the expense of Americans more than foreign actors who threaten the homeland.”
Read the full letter to Secretary Mayorkas here.
This investigation follows a February letter from the House Committee on Homeland Security, which requested a status update and any preliminary findings regarding DHS’s ongoing “360” review of its Office of Intelligence and Analysis. Read the full letter here.