Reports surfaced this week that the F-B-I is planning to give its 14-thousand agents new authority to investigate the private lives of law-abiding Americans. Now, Senator Jon Tester is calling on the agency to abandon those plans. Under the F-B-I’s new plan, agents across the country would have authority to search through databases, use surveillance teams to monitor citizens, and even to sift through trash… without keeping record of it. Senator Tester says that agencies charged with keeping Americans safe must do so without trampling constitutional rights.

Senator Tester is an outspoken advocate for Americans’ privacy rights and has consistently opposed the Patriot Act, voting against an extension of the controversial law last month.

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