Conservative revolt in the House blocks effort to reauthorize a key US spy tool
WASHINGTON — A bill that would reauthorize a crucial national security surveillance program was blocked Wednesday by a conservative backlash, throwing the prospects for a final transition into uncertainty amid a looming deadline. The legislative deadlock also follows an edict earlier in the day from former President Donald Trump to “kill” the measure.
The legislative collapse comes months after a similar process to reform and reauthorize the surveillance program fell apart before it even reached the House. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has called the program “critically important” but has struggled to find a path forward on the issue, which has been plagued by partisan political bickering for years. The procedural vote to bring up the bill failed by a vote of 193 to 228. Nineteen Republicans voted no.
The pending bill would revamp the surveillance program with a series of reforms aimed at appeasing critics who complained about civil liberties violations against Americans. But Republican critics complained those changes did not go far enough, raising doubts whether the bill, backed by the Biden administration and Johnson, would get enough votes to pass.
At issue is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the U.S. government to collect without warrants the communications of non-Americans outside the country to gather foreign intelligence. If Congress doesn’t act, it will expire on April 19.
U.S. officials have said the tool, first approved in 2008 and renewed several times since, is crucial in disrupting terror attacks, cyber intrusions and foreign espionage and has also provided intelligence that the U.S. has relied on for specific operations.
But the administration’s efforts to secure the program’s reauthorization have been met with fierce and bipartisan opposition, with Democrats like Sen. Ron Wyden having long advocated for civil liberties and joining Trump’s Republican supporters, who on Wednesday a post on Truth Social falsely stated that Section 702 had been used to spy on his presidential campaign.
“Kill FISA,” he wrote in capital letters. ‘It was used illegally against me and many others. They spied on my campaign.” A former adviser to his 2016 presidential campaign came under fire under another section of the surveillance law over possible ties to Russia.
A particular area of concern for lawmakers has centered on the FBI’s use of its vast intelligence repository to seek information on Americans and others in the US. Although the surveillance program only targets non-Americans in other countries, it also collects communications from Americans when they are in contact with the targeted foreigners.
Over the past year, US officials have exposed a series of abuses and errors by FBI analysts in improperly searching the intelligence repository for information about Americans or others in the US, including a member of Congress and participants in the protests against racial justice of 2020 and the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
These violations have led to demands for the FBI to obtain a warrant before conducting database queries on Americans, which FBI Director Chris Wray has warned would effectively undermine the effectiveness of the program and was also legally unnecessary because the database already contained lawfully collected information.
“While it is imperative that we ensure that this critical 702 authority does not lapse, we must also not undermine the effectiveness of this vital tool with a command requirement or similar restriction, thereby crippling our ability to address fast-moving threats ,” said Wray. in a speech Tuesday.
Johnson made another attempt at approval on Wednesday, saying: “It is critical that we address these abuses because we do not want to lose Section 702 of FISA. It is a critical part of our intelligence and law enforcement in this country.”
Although the program was technically set to expire on April 19, the Biden administration said it expects its intelligence collection authority to remain operational for another year, thanks to an earlier opinion from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees surveillance applications.