Republican Budget Bill Signals New Era in Federal Surveillance (techpolicy.press)

🔗 https://www.techpolicy.press/republican-budget-bill-signals-new-era-in-federal-surveillance/
Posted on Jan 1, 1

📚 Overview & Context

In this July 2, 2025 article, Tech Policy Press reports on a sweeping Republican budget proposal—unofficially dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill—which seeks to dramatically expand the federal surveillance state by increasing the technological reach and power of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its sub-agencies.

🔍 Surveillance & Budget Expansion

  • The bill earmarks up to $175 billion for surveillance-adjacent programs.
  • Major funding flows toward DHS, ICE, and CBP, supporting:
    • AI-based threat detection systems
    • Real-time tracking of individuals
    • A centralized “everything database” aggregating personal, financial, and biometric data

🧠 Predictive Policing Tools

  • Emphasis on predicting suspicious behavior—a move toward “pre-crime” models.
  • Investment in:
    • Risk classification tools
    • Automated suspicion inference algorithms
    • Pattern analysis systems to flag individuals for investigation

“The project aims to track, classify, and even predict the behavior of migrants, activists, and travelers using automated inference tools.” — Tech Policy Press

⚖️ Civil Liberties & Democratic Oversight

  • Critics warn the bill could undermine constitutional protections:
    • Expands executive surveillance power with minimal oversight
    • Raises concerns about profiling, false positives, and chilling effects on civil liberties

📎 Citation

Jackson, D., & Hendrix, J. (2025, July 2). Republican Budget Bill Signals New Era in Federal Surveillance. Tech Policy Press.
Summary generated by ChatGPT (GPT‑4).
Retrieved from https://www.techpolicy.press/republican-budget-bill-signals-new-era-in-federal-surveillance/