A key vote to advance reauthorization of a controversial spy tool failed in the House of Representatives on Wednesday after Donald Trump urged his allies to “kill it.”
The so-called “compromise” bill included new guardrails for FISA that hardliners said did not go far enough.
‘KILLING FISA, WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPY ON MY CAMPAIGN!!! DJT’ Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday morning.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is credited with helping intelligence officers thwart terrorist attacks on American soil, but it has also been prone to abuse by spying on American citizens.
It was used to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016, when he was suspected of having communications with the Russians.
It allows the U.S. government to monitor foreign nationals with suspected terrorist ties who are not located on U.S. soil, even if the party on the other end of such communications is a U.S. citizen in the United States.
Nineteen Republicans voted ‘no’ on the rule to advance the reauthorization of Section 702, which is a serious blow to President Mike Johnson.
Nineteen Republicans voted “no” on the rule to advance the reauthorization of Section 702, which was a serious blow to President Mike Johnson.
All Democrats voted “no” on the rule and usually always do, even if they support the bill.
The vote was 193-228.
It was the seventh vote on the failed rule in this Congress, the fourth under President Mike Johnson. A rule had not failed in more than 20 years before this Congress, as the majority party generally did not resort to such tactics to paralyze House business.
It was also the third failed attempt to renew and reform FISA.
Johnson responded to Trump’s message before the vote: “Trump used the information from this program to kill terrorists.”
The speaker stated that the bill as it stands now “kills the abuses” that took place under FISA in the past.
He has warned that if the compromise bill fails, the Senate will “jam” the House with a clean reauthorization without oversight reforms before FISA expires on April 19.
House Republicans will meet behind closed doors to discuss the path forward on FISA on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
Johnson could put the FISA bill back on hold, meaning he wouldn’t need all of his Republicans to approve a rule, but he would need two-thirds of the House to pass a final bill.
This could further irritate Johnson’s detractors and push them into the arms of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to rescind the threat.
If Greene called her motion to vacate the floor, there would be a vote to oust Johnson from the presidency that would only need a small handful of Republicans to sign, if all Democrats vote again to remove a Republican president.
A senior Republican adviser told DailyMail.com there is a “strong” chance Republicans will accept the motion to kill the anti-FISA bill. [MTV] if Johnson were to put the bill back on hold.
“His suspension is another slap in the face to members who are already thinking about MTV.”
Hardliners on the right and left have become strange bedfellows over accusations that FISA has trampled Americans’ civil liberties.
They are advocating for an amendment that would require intelligence officers to obtain a court order before intercepting communications from any U.S. citizen who is speaking with suspected foreigners.
That amendment pits the Judiciary Committee and its allies against the Intelligence Committee and national security hawks who say the intelligence community should not get bogged down in trying to obtain warrants when potential terrorist plots involve communications with Americans.
If an intelligence officer were to consult Section 702 to capture the communications of a suspected terrorist and were speaking to a US citizen in the states, they would only be able to see half of the terrorists’ conversation without a court order to look at the US. . the National.
Johnson said he would not force members to vote one way or the other on the amendment requirement, but he privately told people he opposes it.
The House-led bill released last week would expand the program while adding new changes aimed at strengthening oversight and training and ensuring program transparency.
It won’t include an amendment by Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, that prohibits federal agencies from buying information about Americans from private data companies, angering hardline conservatives, but leaders said that could get a separate vote. this week.
In March, a compromise bill crafted by Judiciary and Intelligence Committee negotiators was abruptly pulled from the House calendar over Intel Committee concerns about an amendment that would have forced authorities to seek a warrant. judicial before obtaining communications involving a US Citizen.
A May 2023 report detailed how the FBI used Section 702 to ‘query’ (or search for) names of people suspected of being on Capitol grounds during the January 6, 2021 riots, Black Lives Matters protesters, victims of crime and their families and donors to a campaign for Congress.
In total, the FBI misused Section 702 more than 278,000 times, according to the document.
While many of the uses of Section 702 remain classified, intelligence officials leaked late last year that they had used the controversial tool to thwart arms sales to Iran.
The CIA and other intelligence agencies had used information gathered by monitoring the electronic communications of foreign weapons manufacturers and stopping several shipments of advanced weapons to Iran.