WASHINGTON (Gray DC) – Congress passed a short-term extension Friday for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) after a long-term deal fell apart. Now, there is just a little more time to negotiate Section 702, which provides legal framework and practices for collecting foreign intelligence. <\/p>\n
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) negotiated a 5-year extension deal with his Republican Conference. The deal included some reforms to the warrant process surveillance agencies must go through. However, shortly after midnight Friday, 20 far-right Republicans voted down the procedural \u201crule vote,\u201d killing the deal just a few days before the April 20 deadline.<\/p>\n
The House ended up passing a clean ten-day extension by unanimous consent, followed by the Senate a few hours later.<\/p>\n
Now, Republicans need to get on the same page \u2014 ideally with a palatable option for at least some Senate Democrats. While the House can pass legislation with only Republican votes, the Senate needs at least seven Democrats to move forward legislation.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration was pushing a clean extension with no reforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am asking Republicans to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean Bill to the floor,\u201d President Donald Trump said in part of a Truth Social post Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Right now, the nearly two dozen House Republicans who killed the five-year deal are not on board.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need to have warrants,\u201d Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said Thursday afternoon. \u201cI don\u2019t like anybody having the ability to spy on Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
FISA is meant for foreign intelligence purposes, but wire taps and surveillance on foreign nationals can incidentally involve American citizens. On the other side of the aisle, nearly all Democrats are demanding reforms because they don\u2019t trust the Trump administration with the powers laid out in Section 702 of FISA.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, without additional reforms, I am a no,\u201d Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said Thursday afternoon. \u201cThe number of sensitive person inquiries have tripled in the last year\u2026 I want to know why they\u2019ve tripled. What protections are being put in place so that this administration is not going to weaponize really important intelligence tools against Americans?\u201d<\/p>\n
The new deadline for FISA is April 30. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill also have a number of other pressing priorities in that time frame, including budget hearings for next year\u2019s appropriations process and negotiating a potential second reconciliation bill.<\/p>\n
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