Texas Rep Files Bill to Cut off Utilities to Federal Agencies That Spy on Americans

AUSTIN TX – Texas house member Jonathan Stickland (R-Bedford) announced via twitter that he filed a bill today that “will cut off water/electricity to all NSA facilities in the state of Texas.” This tactic, first made famous by Utah lawmakers who proposed cutting off water to the massive NSA datacenter in Bluffdale, UT, is about the only recourse that sovereign states have to curb federal government overreach, short of succession– see Civil War.

I just filed HB 3916 which will cut off water/electricity to all NSA facilities in the state of Texas #txlege #NSA #liberty #privacy #tcot — Jonathan Stickland (@RepStickland) March 13, 2015

The one page bill amends an existing statute relating to local government code to prohibit water and electricity service to certain federal agencies defined as…

a federal agency that is involved in the routine surveillance or collection and storage of bulk telephone or e-mail records or related metadata concerning any citizen of the United States and that claims the legal authority to collect and store the bulk telephone or e-mail records or metadata concerning any citizen of the United States without the citizen’s consent or a search warrant that describes the person, place, or thing to be searched or seized.

The bill would further require local governments to abide by the statute…

A political subdivision may not provide water or electric utility service to a federal data collection and surveillance agency or to the property or a facility of another person used to support a federal data collection and surveillance agency for information collection or storage. A political subdivision that has outstanding bonds that are payable from pledged water or electric utility revenue is required to terminate the water or electric utility service, as applicable, to a federal data collection and surveillance agency only when the bonds are repaid.

I don’t often believe that passing more laws leads to more freedom, but once in a blue moon I find exceptions to the rule. In this case, cutting off resources to the federal government is a very encouraging idea. However, don’t think for a minute that the federal government is the only government agency that wants to spy on you. Late last year the Texas Department of Public Safety entered into a non-disclosure agreement with the Department of Justice in order to purchase “international mobile subscriber identities,” also known by the Harris Corporation as “StingRays,” devices that emulate cell phone towers to intercept mobile phone activity in a particular area. These devices have local authoritarian police regimes chomping at the bit to get their hands on such an Orwellian technology- See Austin, Houston.

With thousands of bills proposed each legislative session in Texas, its unlikely that a bill such as this is will gain any traction to become law, however, this is an important conversation starter. Important questions need to be discussed, such as, why are federal agencies allowed to occupy land in sovereign states? Why, after Edward Snowden revealed the largest violation of civil liberties in the history of man, is the National Security Agency still able to continue spying on Americans? Sadly, the answer is simply, the majority of people are perfectly happy to be oppressed as long as they believe it to be in the interest of “safety.”

This post brought to you by George Orwell’s 1984.