Tester kills privacy-invading Cybersecurity Act

Farmer says measure tramples civil rights of law-abiding Montanans

Billings, Mont. — In his continued effort to protect civil liberties and privacy, Montana farmer Jon Tester today voted against the Senate’s controversial Cybersecurity Act for the second time in the past week.

The Cybersecurity Act would have allowed internet service providers to monitor and read private emails of law-abiding Americans. As written, the measure would have also given law enforcement agencies the ability to use cell phones to track people without warrants, and would have given federal agencies the power to collect and indefinitely keep personal information.

“Like the Patriot Act and Real ID, the cybersecurity bill was wrong for Montana,” Tester said. “As written this measure simply gives the government too much authority to invade the private lives of law-abiding Montanans and to trample on our freedoms.”

Tester consistently opposes the unpopular Patriot Act, which allows the U.S. government to spy on law-abiding citizens. Most Montanans oppose the Patriot Act.

Congressman Dennis Rehberg voted to support the Patriot Act five times during his 12 years in Congress

In a recent radio interview, Rehberg told listeners that the Patriot Act was a “necessary piece of legislation.”

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