House passes controversial FISA bill in bipartisan vote

The House, in a bipartisan vote, reauthorized the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers on Friday, approving the program for two more years even as lawmakers narrowly refused to attach an amendment that would have required a warrant for some searches.

The chamber approved the bill – which would expand and reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) – in a vote of 273-147.

Congress is meeting its April 19 deadline to reauthorize spying powers.

Consideration of the FISA legislation resulted in dramatic scenes on the House floor Friday.

Minutes before final approval, the House voted down an amendment 212-212 that would have added a warrant requirement for data on Americans collected in foreign surveillance. In the Chamber, the tie loses.

That amendment, led by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), emerged as the central disagreement in the FISA debate, pitting privacy hawks on the Judiciary Committee — who were in favor of the provision — against members of the Intelligence Committee and the White House, which opposed it.

Passage of the amendment would have raised serious questions about the fate of the FISA bill in the Senate and the White House.

Then, as Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-Texas) – who presided over the chamber – announced the vote, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) shouted “I oppose.”

Seconds later, Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Florida) – the legislation’s sponsor – introduced a motion to reconsider the vote. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, then offered a motion to table the motion for reconsideration.

But the vote on the motion to table the motion to reconsider was postponed until a later date. The FISA bill cannot be sent to the Senate until a vote takes place, even if it has passed the House.

The passage of the FISA legislation, however, marks a victory for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who fought for months to facilitate compromise between two warring factions over the contentious issue of reauthorizing surveillance authority. without a US warrant.

Those disagreements led to a short-term extension in December, caused Johnson to drop plans to vote on a reform bill in February, and led to 19 Republicans failing a procedural vote on a reauthorization measure on Wednesday — hours after former President Trump urged lawmakers to “KILL FISA” in a statement on Truth Social – dealing an embarrassing blow to the Speaker of the House.

After last-minute negotiations between GOP holdouts and leadership on Thursday, Johnson agreed to change the FISA reauthorization from five to two years, hold the vote on changing the warrant requirement, and hold a vote on a future next on a separate data privacy bill. , which was enough to make the radicals agree to open the legislation for debate.

But even with FISA off Johnson’s to-do list, the path ahead is difficult for the House speaker as he appears poised to enter a contentious debate over sending additional aid to Ukraine that has plagued his position as president since winning the gavel in October.

Looming over this debate, as was the case with FISA, is a threat from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to force a vote on Johnson’s impeachment. The Georgia Republican introduced a motion to vacate — the same mechanism used to remove former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — late last month, but has not yet said when she plans to trigger the resolution.

Section 702 of FISA allows for warrantless surveillance of noncitizens located abroad. But communications they receive from Americans with whom they are in contact are also included in the process.

The issue has united some Republicans and Democrats who argue that the government should need a warrant to review any information gathered about Americans as a result of foreign surveillance.

“The underlying bill has some changes and reforms that are positive, that are good — but unless this amendment is added to the legislation, we should not pass it,” said Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Chamber Judiciary. during the debate on Friday. “This change is critical.”

But others, aligned with the intelligence community and the White House, argued that the move would gut the bill, blinding officials to information that requires immediate, real-time review.

In a statement Thursday night, the White House said it “strongly opposes” the change because, they argued, it would “rebuild a wall around, and thereby block our access to, information already lawfully collected in the possession of the US Government.” USA”.

The failure to amend the warrant is a blow to privacy hawks who, since last year, have been lobbying to include such a measure in a FISA 702 bill – something that has caused many of these advocates to decline to support the bill. global.

Johnson hailed the bill as a package of reforms that would respond to abuses of the tool, much of it by the FBI — a message that was unconvincing to many of his colleagues who have criticized the agency.

It turned out that last year the FBI misused the FISA database 278,000 times. But the number of queries has dropped dramatically since the agency made changes to the search portal that opted for agents to search the 702 database, dropping to 119,000 last year from more than a million the year before.

The bill includes numerous reforms to FISA 702, including requiring agents to obtain approval before querying the 702 database for information that may concern Americans. This reduces the number of officials who can green-light a search from about 10,000 to 550.

The bill also calls for a Department of Justice audit of all inquiries from U.S. citizens — although such a review would only happen after the fact.

It also includes provisions that would notify some members of Congress about searches involving lawmakers — something critics have described as “for me, but not for you” protections.

This provision would also require law enforcement authorities to obtain congressional approval to conduct a “defensive” search for information relating to lawmakers to determine how it is being discussed by foreign intelligence services. Both provisions would allow the FBI director or deputy director to make an exception.

The bill also includes provisions addressing a separate part of the FISA statute that covers domestic surveillance — updates to the law intended to address the FBI’s spying on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

FISA already requires authorities to obtain a warrant to spy on U.S. citizens, but the bill would prevent political opposition and media reports from being used as the basis for requesting a warrant — addressing two issues underlying the warrant for Page .

Updated at 1:35 pm EDT

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story