[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5211 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5211

  To prohibit funds from being used to implement the Internet Covert 
 Operations Program under the United States Postal Inspection Service, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            August 15, 2023

  Mr. Gaetz introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
               Committee on Oversight and Accountability

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To prohibit funds from being used to implement the Internet Covert 
 Operations Program under the United States Postal Inspection Service, 
                        and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``USPIS Surveillance Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) The United States Postal Service has been operating a 
        clandestine domestic surveillance program of Americans' social 
        media activity known as the Internet Covert Operations Program 
        (iCOP).
            (2) iCOP is part of the United States Postal Inspection 
        Service which is the law enforcement and security component of 
        USPS.
            (3) A March 25, 2022, report by the USPS Inspector General 
        stated: ``We determined that certain proactive searches iCOP 
        conducted using an open-source intelligence tool from February 
        to April 2021 exceeded the Postal Inspection Service's law 
        enforcement authority''.
            (4) The USP Inspection Service is operating outside of its 
        USPS jurisdiction when it monitors internet users' sharing of 
        information as its jurisdiction is narrowly defined within 
        postal mail only.
            (5) The iCOP program is a violation of privacy; it 
        encroaches upon the private lives of Americans and seeks to 
        curb constitutional rights of the First Amendment.
            (6) iCOP is not only illegal for operating outside of its 
        stated jurisdiction, but also politically motivated in its 
        target.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON FUNDING OF PROGRAM.

    No Federal funds (including amounts available in the Postal Service 
Fund established under section 2003 of title 39, United States Code) 
may be used to implement, conduct, or otherwise carry out the Internet 
Covert Operations Program operated by the United States Postal 
Inspection Service or any other domestic surveillance program with 
targets that do not have an identified connection to the mail, postal 
crimes, or the security of Postal Service facilities or personnel, or 
with politically motivated targets.
                                 <all>