Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) announced Wednesday that the House will no longer consider government oversight legislation after the House Intelligence Committee was “smoked” by pro-reform lawmakers.
Raj Shah, Johnson’s deputy communications director, said: announced“To give Congress more time to reach agreement on the best way to reform FISA and Section 702 while preserving the integrity of our nation’s critical national security programs, the House of Representatives has decided to reform and revise Section 702 at a later date. We plan to consider the authorization bill.”
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.)’s office announced in a press release that lawmakers will not vote on HR 7320 (Information Reform and Secure America Act) this week.
The announcement came on the heels of the House Rules Committee holding a hearing on a bill to reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is set to expire on April 19.
Section 702 is a law that allows intelligence agencies to collect communications of targeted foreign nationals. It could also lead to targeted surveillance of Americans’ private communications, which privacy advocates say would violate the Fourth Amendment’s requirement for warrants to search Americans’ communications. I think this is a workaround.
At the Rules Committee hearing, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), House Judiciary Committee Executive Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), and Representative Thomas Massie (D-N.Y.) Pro-privacy legislators such as the Republican Party of Kentucky spoke out. Rules Committee. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and others discuss why FISA reauthorization should be strengthened by strengthening amendments meant to curb government surveillance. led a strong argument as to whether
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) has proposed an amendment to the bill that would require a warrant if a government agency wants to use Section 702 to investigate Americans’ communications, Breitbart News reports. Exclusively reported. Questions to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which oversees matters related to government surveillance, the Congressional Intelligence Committees, and the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.
Some proposed an amendment that would prevent the federal government from exploiting a loophole that allows it to purchase Americans’ personal data through third-party data brokers. Biggs and others call this circumvention of the Fourth Amendment.
Pro-reform lawmakers introduced amendments to the bill as part of the compromise agreement, but members of the Information Committee did not. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and other members of the Intelligence Committee also did not appear at the Rules Committee hearing to make their case.
Rather, some on Capitol Hill believe that the Intelligence Committee’s dissatisfaction with the Judiciary Committee members’ apparent victory halted the entire FISA process.
“The fact that the Intel Committee skipped the Rules Committee, realized that it had lost the argument, and pouted in a manner that forced the Chairman to rescind the FISA compromise was an absolutely outrageous act. I’ve never seen anything like this,” one Republican aide told Breitbart News.
said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Freedom and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. I have written“HPSCI leaders have been running a propaganda campaign all week trying to block this and other reforms…but it’s not working. They saw the writing on the wall. In HPSCI’s view, , if a member does not vote in the manner directed by HPSCI with respect to Section 702, he or she should not have the right to vote at all.”
“Just as we were winning the debate over the domestic spying warrant requirement in the FISA 702 reauthorization, the Speaker withdrew the bill and sent the rest of Congress to a halt this week,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). Canceled,” he wrote.
🚨I can’t believe it🚨
Just as we were winning the debate over the domestic espionage warrant requirement in the FISA 702 reauthorization, the Speaker this week withdrew the bill and suspended the remainder of Congress. https://t.co/kAX6RSxcq2 pic.twitter.com/u8R4cLkBe7
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 14, 2024
There is ongoing debate in the United States regarding the FISA 702 program and whether the government is required to obtain a warrant. @RulesReps Committee now. @JimJordan and Nadler both testified in favor of the warrant. I’ll post this video uncropped and without a caption for immediate publication. pic.twitter.com/nXXC5Egkj2
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 14, 2024
Jordan said at the hearing that the ultimate way to curb government surveillance abuses is to require a warrant. He also made it clear that he would not vote for any bill that would not require a warrant to search Americans’ communications.
I think you’re just emphasizing the point that Ranking Member and I, frankly Ranking Member of the Rules Committee, just made. That’s why we need a warrant. You can put all the reforms in there, you can do all the reforms, but ultimately the real checkpoint is not just the FBI, but an independent but comparable government agency that processes the process. It’s about getting involved. Time — Black Lives Matter There’s a search going on there, people who were at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 19,000 donors to Congressional campaigns, and members of Congress themselves, so warrants is necessary. I’m right where ranking member Nadler is. If the warrant requirement is not in the law, I would not support it. I think there are a lot of people who take that position because we understand the warrant requirements. We know it’s wrong, and we know that’s not what this great country is about, because that’s what happened in the last few years.
House Rules Committee
Nadler agreed with Jordan, saying, “I don’t really care whether people in government lean to the left of center or to the right of center. What matters is that they hold power. That means you shouldn’t do it,” he said.
Jordan yelled, “That’s right!”
Nadler said the bill being considered by the Rules Committee has support from the House Intelligence Committee and would expand surveillance powers.
Scanlon accused Republican leaders of “circumventing” the Judiciary Committee with the new bill.
The bill may have failed because members of the Intelligence Committee did not appear at the Rules Committee hearing, or because they were outnumbered by pro-reform lawmakers.
A source told The Daily Beast, “Jordan and Nadler made a presentation to the rules committee. The Intel committee didn’t even show up. Then, wouldn’t you know it, the chairman abolished FISA. Take the ball and go home. Talk about going home. Inter were up in smoke and they know it.”
A person close to the FISA negotiations said:
“Jordan and Nadler gave a presentation to the Rules Committee. The Intel Committee didn’t show up either. Then, wouldn’t you know it, the Chairman abolished FISA. Talk about taking your ball and going home. Inter were on fire and they know it.”
— Reese Gorman (@reesejgorman) February 14, 2024
Sean Moran is a policy reporter at Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
