The 212 House lawmakers who voted in favor of the warrant requirement that failed to pass will have a second chance to stop the bill to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) controversial Section 702 surveillance program, which passed out of the chamber on Friday.
This would have renewed a warrantless FISA through 2026.
This from justthenews.com.
By a master stroke from Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), the warrant requirement is still on the table. She forced an additional procedural vote to stop Speaker Johnson et al who would betray the privacy of We the People.
The amendment to end warrantless surveillance passed in a tie vote of 212-212 on the House floor (Read: Speaker Johnson betrayed We the People with his vote against warrants), but Rep. Luna objected to its passage. Luna requested a vote on the motion to reconsider the legislation. That means the FISA bill will not be able to head to the Senate yet until after the House votes to table the motion to reconsider the vote next week.
House Speaker Mike Johnson—Sadly, not what the Doctor ordered for Conservatism!
Section 702 allows the U.S. government to collect electronic communications of non-Americans located outside the country without a warrant. It came under scrutiny among some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and civil liberties groups because it sometimes results in the collection of data on Americans who are in contact with those surveilled individuals.
An amendment was offered to add a warrant requirement to see data from Americans, but it received a 212 to 212 vote and Speaker Johnson cast the losing vote.
The measure was supported by far-right Republicans and progressive liberals, who argued it was necessary to protect Americans’ privacy. The White House and intelligence officials, however, warned such a requirement would cripple the program and leave the U.S. “blind” to intelligence used to identify terrorist threats and other risks to national security.
Wednesday’s failed vote, in which 19 Republican hard-liners voted against party leadership, came after President Trump weighed in on the issue at the last-minute. In a message posted to his social media platform, Trump wrote: “KILL FISA.”
House Republicans huddled Wednesday evening and Thursday to regroup, and the House Rules Committee on Thursday night voted 8-4 to advance the FISA bill after the setback.
Changes to the bill that appeared to appease conservative hard-liners were reauthorizing the FISA program for two years instead of five years.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) signaled that adjustment was a win for Trump if he is elected in November.
He stated:
We just bought President Trump an at-bat. The previous version of this bill would’ve kicked reauthorization beyond the Trump presidency. Now, President Trump gets an at-bat to fix the system that victimized him more than any other America.
Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) said:
[G]oing from five years to two years is a good thing.
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) said:
The shorter timeframe allows the next Congress to reevaluate to make sure the legislation is actually working.
Gaetz also said he was given:
[A]bsolute assurance from Johnson that next week the House will vote on a privacy bill from Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH).
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (LA), ahead of the vote, predicted its passage and said:
[I]t would be a win for Johnson, who has repeatedly struggled in his six months in leadership with the party’s right flank.
Johnson continues to face a looming threat to his speakership from Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
Scalise said of FISA:
We are going to keep moving forward and the Senate is going to have to do their job.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) took to X to inform the public that the fight over FISA isn’t over yet:
BREAKING: It’s not over. There will be ONE more vote on Monday on a reconsideration of FISA in the U.S. House.
The bill should be stopped because it lacks warrant protection for Americans—thanks to 86 Republicans & 126 Democrats who killed the warrant.
Further:
The 278,000 times federal law enforcement abused the section 702 database is proof a warrant is needed.
Roy said on the House floor:
This is not that hard. If you want to go after an American, if you want to look at their information, get a warrant.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) was reportedly on the House floor to witness the vote. After the warrant amendment failed, Lee posted on X:
[L]iterally every member of the House who opposed that amendment made the difference between failure and passage.
Lee also wrote:
[FISA] can’t save us from the national-security threats of an open border [and a] warrant requirement wouldn’t destroy the national-security benefits of FISA.
Reacting to the passage of the bill without the warrant amendment, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) said:
[T]he Uniparty just voted to allow the Deep State
to violate your Fourth Amendment rights and
spy on millions of Americans for two more years.
Johnson, who voted against the warrant amendment and in favor of the FISA renewal bill, met with Trump on Friday at Mar-a-Lago. The two held a joint news conference focused on election integrity after the House passed the bill. The press conference touched upon other topics including FISA.
Trump was asked if he supported the FISA reauthorization bill.
He said:
I’m not a big fan of FISA. I look at it and I studied and I know it probably better than anybody.
You know, they spied on my campaign.
I said, ‘you do what you want’ but I’m not a big fan of FISA.
Trump said some “checks and balances” were added to the FISA renewal bill text but he repeated that he still isn’t a “big fan” of the legislation.
