House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., abruptly stopped a planned vote on revising the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) after Republican lawmakers “threatened a mutiny.”
Fox News Digital reported that the House Rules Committee was already in the process of considering a bill renewing Section 702 of FISA when “Johnson’s spokesperson announced that a planned House-wide vote would not happen this week as expected.”
“The Rules panel, which had to approve the bill before it hit the House floor, abruptly called off the rest of its session with no explanation,” the outlet added.
House cancels Friday session after scrapping a planned vote on FISA: pic.twitter.com/HK2f7tYgo9
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) February 14, 2024
Members of the House Intelligence Committee reportedly “threatened to tank a procedural vote to effectively kill the legislation,” Fox News Digital noted, citing “four sources.”
“Instead of playing the game through Rules and regular order, Intel decided to take their ball and go home, walking away from the negotiated text and amendment plan without any understanding of why,” one source told the outlet.
According to Fox News:
Three more sources close to the Intelligence Committee challenged that narrative to Fox News Digital, saying the bill text was changed over the weekend without their consent or the consent of the House Judiciary Committee, which also worked on the bill.
They said the issue was primarily with an amendment offered by Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus who does not sit on either committee.
Davidson’s amendment was not “germane” to the compromise text, according to one of the sources.
“Someone in leadership staff ended up drafting text that got inserted into the base text over the weekend, so they basically airdropped … this one paragraph into the base text that now makes that amendment germane,” the source reportedly said. “The amendment totally screws FISA, the text that was added totally screws FISA in terms of its ability to be a national security tool.”
“Davidson’s proposed amendment would have forced feds acting within FISA to seek a warrant before trying to obtain third-party-owned communications and location data of a U.S. citizen,” Fox News noted. “The bill intended to come to the floor this week was the product of monthslong talks between the Judiciary and Intelligence panels. Both sides agreed that Section 702 needs to be reformed, and a task force of seven lawmakers was created to hash out the compromise, two sources said.”
Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., feels the Intelligence Committee’s oversight of the FISA court would “help remedy these problems and puts us on the best path forward to protect national security, and secondly, to hold the FBI accountable.”
Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan told reporters that the warrant requirement is not the best way to “ensure the personal privacy of Americans.”
Congress is about to vote on amendment to require a warrant for all FISA surveillance against US citizens.
Yesterday, Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, argues against it. Saying requiring a warrant is not the best way to protect American’s personal privacy.… pic.twitter.com/S6cfIG0gyI
— RJ Talks (@realRJTalks) February 15, 2024
According to Fox News, the second source close to the Intelligence Committee revealed that “This was airdropped in there,” referring to the text of Davidson’s amendment.
“This was not something that the seven members of the working group had ever digested, ever looked at. So really, it was disingenuous to think that that would be a part of that. And essentially, [House GOP leadership] agreed,” the source said, adding that Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., were “surprised” at the altered text.
“What they’re asking for is a secondary requirement, a warrant which would be a warrant for the query of a database of already lawfully collected data … that would be the equivalent of a police officer needing a warrant before running a license plate,” a “third source” told the outlet.
But members of the Intelligence Committee “are the ones that see the threats to our nation up close and personal every day,” the source said.
Section 702 expires on April 19, though it is not yet known if and when House Republicans will bring the bill back up to vote.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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