US House passes bill to reauthorize foreign surveillance authorities
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The measure, known as the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, was passed by the House with 273 votes in favor and 147 against it.
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson waits to raise the gavel to formally conclude a joint meeting of Congress after Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida finished an address in the House chamber, Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Washington. (AP)
The US House of Representatives approved measures on Friday to modify and renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The bill is intended to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), allowing the government to collect without a warrant communications of non-Americans for foreign intel purposes outside the US.
The measure, known as the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, was passed by the House with 273 votes in favor and 147 against it.
The measure extends Section 702 authorities, which were supposed to expire on April 19, for two years. The law also modifies numerous areas of the espionage program, following an examination that exposed the US government abusing its monitoring power hundreds of thousands of times.
House members revised the bill to include international narcotics trafficking activities and foreign passengers in the purview of Section 702 authority, to require reporting to Congress on US person searches, and to alter the definition of a digital service provider under Section 702.
However, the House of Representatives refused an amendment requiring a warrant demand for US citizen monitoring in a tie vote of 212 in favor and 212 against.
US Congressman Thomas Massie wrote on X that this was "how the Constitution dies. The Speaker [Mike Johnson] doesn’t always vote in the House, but he was the tiebreaker today. He voted against warrants."
This is how the Constitution dies.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 12, 2024
By a tie vote, the amendment to require a warrant to spy on Americans goes down in flames.
This is a sad day for America.
The Speaker doesn’t always vote in the House, but he was the tie breaker today. He voted against warrants. pic.twitter.com/i49GnCzyPm
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene voiced apprehension regarding Johnson's intentions to introduce FISA, which she contends would permit "mass surveillance" of US citizens.
Read my full letter to my colleagues detailing why I filed a motion to vacate Speaker Johnson.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) April 9, 2024
(1/2) https://t.co/CByvpRo8My pic.twitter.com/DWQck3WpoZ
Greene warned that if Johnson persisted in this direction, the Republican party would effectively dissolve and merge with the Democrats, leading to what she described as a "Uniparty" resulting from self-inflicted destruction.
Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, expressed to reporters how he's "just bewildered that a small number of members decided to take down the rule."
The panel’s Republican chairman, Mike Turner of Ohio, said, “There’s a great deal of misinformation about FISA,” adding, “It is not spying on Americans — in fact, that is absolutely prohibited," in an attempt to ease critics who have been vocal about civil liberty violations.
The Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution protects against searches and seizures without a legal warrant.
The bill now goes to the United States Senate for consideration.
Given the context of a series of abuses and mistakes by FBI analysts in improperly using the intelligence repository for information about Americans or others in the US, FBI Director Chris Wray explained, “While it is imperative that we ensure this critical authority of 702 does not lapse, we also must not undercut the effectiveness of this essential tool with a warrant requirement or some similar restriction, paralyzing our ability to tackle fast-moving threats."
Back in December, Congressman Matt Rosendale said that the bill "allowed the FBI to spy on U.S. citizens more than 278,000 times without a warrant! FISA should not be combined with our national defense, and it is unacceptable that the DC Cartel is bypassing regular order to jam Members by forcing them to vote on two unrelated bills in one vote."
