Despite several glitches along the way, House Republicans successfully reauthorized a contentious espionage law in a bipartisan vote.
On Friday, the House voted 273-147 to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, with the majority of the bill’s objectors hailing from the body’s ultraconservative and progressive factions that value civil liberties.
The intelligence committee is the law’s greatest backer, claiming that FISA’s warrantless surveillance powers are critical to national security.
The final product did not fully please most conservative hardliners, who have long been a source of contention for House Speaker Mike Johnson. However, they ultimately decided to reduce the program’s standard expiration period from five to two years. They took this action with the intention of implementing significant changes in the future, should Donald Trump retake the White House in 2024 and use his administration to shape the next legislative cycle.
One of the key sticking issues for Johnson and his fellow Republican leaders was a provision in the law known as Section 702, which permits US authorities to monitor foreigners’ communications outside the country.
Authorities eventually compile this monitoring into a database, enabling them to conduct searches without a request. However, due to the frequent communication between foreigners and Americans, authorities also collect domestic data.
Section 702 opponents fought hard for a warrant requirement, stating it was important for Americans’ privacy rights. However, advocates of the measure cited other FISA amendments implemented to prevent abuses, arguing that a warrant requirement would render the program ineffective.
“The constitutional liberties of Americans must come first; we do not suspend the constitution for anything,” Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., chair of the House Freedom Caucus, stated on the Capitol steps on Wednesday, backed by his like-minded colleagues. “That has to be the premium, protecting Americans’s constitutional liberties.”
Despite conservative opposition, Johnson defended Section 702 at a weekly press conference, stating “it’s a critically important piece of our intelligence and law enforcement.” Prior to becoming speaker last October, Johnson was a conservative critic of the law, but he stated that confidential briefings on the law provided him with a “different perspective.”
House Republicans had been attempting to take the lead on FISA renewal for months, but the subject exposed profound splits within the GOP conference, forcing Johnson to withdraw FISA consideration from the House twice in the previous few months due to infighting. The differences forced Congress to prolong the program until April 19.
The House returned last week hoping to reauthorize FISA earlier, but it quickly became clear that right-wingers were fiercely opposed to the legislation, accusing leadership of manipulating the process to avoid it.
It didn’t help that Trump essentially offered his support to the hard-right, ordering Republicans on Truth Social to “KILL FISA.”
In revenge for their leadership, 19 of those conservative lawmakers blocked a normally routine “rule” vote on the bill on Wednesday, bringing the House to a halt and highlighting the stark divisions among House Republicans once more.
The new bill Republicans presented isn’t much different from what conservatives opposed earlier this week, with the only major difference being a shortened two-year expiration date, but that change was enough to satisfy hardliners and allow the legislation to pass in the hopes that Republicans will take full control of Washington in the 2024 elections, allowing them to drastically change the law later on.
Conservatives were also able to persuade leadership to allow a vote on Rep. Andy Biggs’, R-Ariz., amendment, which would have included a warrant requirement under Section 702, but the amendment failed in a nail-biter vote of 212-212, dividing both parties.
However, the house has not yet concluded its work. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., filed a procedural motion shortly before legislators left Washington for the weekend to prevent the bill from being sent to the Senate, which, if adopted, would require the House to vote again on the legislation.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, moved to dismiss Luna’s motion, and the chamber will vote again on the subject when members return next Monday.
Without the warrant requirement, the bill is expected to pass easily in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and the White House has also signaled support for the law’s renewal.
