The reason that Republican support for the RESTRICT ACT seems so incongruous is that they, along with all government officials, are lying. It isn't a case of the citizenry "being protected against the CCP", it is an attempt to monopolize the breaches of privacy against the citizenry for the sole beneift of the USG and its minions. Be aware that, as usual, the citizens are victims regardless of thre existence of this bill and there is nothing in the bill to remedy that. In fact, the bill, as usual, treats the citizenry as the enemy of the government. The only sure thing about any government action will be that the citizenry will lose more freeedom.