A band of House Republicans joined Democrats in blocking an attempt to extend the federal government’s authority to surveil foreigners’ data without a warrant in the wee hours of Friday morning.
With the failure on the House floor, the White House and House leadership’s effort to maintain an intelligence program they consider important for national security has hit a speedbump.
The chamber instead opted to pass by unanimous consent a short-term extension of the expiration date from April 20 to April 30.
The source of controversy is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which has long been criticized by some House Republicans and Democrats, who argue it is prone to abuse and has resulted in the surveillance of American citizens whose data is mixed with that of foreigners.
President Donald Trump had publicly called on Republicans to “to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean [extension] to the floor.”
However, the House could not come to a long-term agreement.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, foretold the flop earlier in the week, saying, “a clean extension ain’t going to move on the floor.”
Due to this disagreement, Republicans crafted a five-year extension deal late in the night following talks with Republicans who demanded reforms. The original plan was to pass an 18-month extension.
The deal included new language meant to prevent the federal government from targeting Americans’ data without a warrant, as well as introducing fines for the unauthorized search of Americans’ information and allowing members of Congress access to intelligence court proceedings.
The House rejected this amended version 200-220. Democrats were almost unanimous in opposition, while 12 Republicans voted against it and nine did not vote.
As Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, a FISA critic, described it, “some felt” the amended version “was a massive reform that would make FISA unworkable,” while “others felt it did nothing of substance.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, rallied his party against the five-year deal in a speech on the House floor shortly before midnight.
“This is an appalling, Kafkaesque process leading to an absurd, Orwellian result,” Raskin said.
“They say you shouldn’t look to see how the sausage is made. This isn’t even sausage. This is scrapple. It’s scrapple with dog food mixed inside of it,” he added.
Raskin objected to extending FISA all the way to five years, as well as the fact that reforms such as the warrant requirement would not immediately go into effect, calling the warrant reforms an “illusory Band-Aid that they’re putting on this process.”
After killing the five-year deal, the House then rejected a procedural measure to move to consideration of the original bill in a 197-228 vote.
Finally, the chamber voted by unanimous consent to push ahead the expiration date and break for the weekend.
“Last night between midnight and 2am, they tried to pass two bad versions of FISA,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote on X after the votes.
“Both would have allowed Feds to unconstitutionally spy on Americans. We stopped both versions, but the fight isn’t over. Eventually, it was decided to give them two more weeks to fix FISA,” he added.
On Friday morning, Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., also framed the short-term extension as positive development.
“Congress now has the opportunity to continue working in good faith to enact reforms that protect our national security without sacrificing the constitutional rights of American citizens,” Harris said in a statement.
“FISA provides our intelligence agencies with critical tools to monitor foreign adversaries, but it has been stretched beyond its intended purpose and used to conduct warrantless searches of Americans’ data,” he added.
The House’s April 30 extension will require approval from the Senate in order to become law.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Friday morning that he did not yet have consensus in his chamber for passing such an agreement by unanimous consent, since Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., “just wants some time to find out exactly what it is they did last night and talk to some of his allies.”
The post FISA Spy Powers Vote a Late-Night Trainwreck on House Floor appeared first on The Daily Signal.
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