Rep. Turner confident FISA bill will pass: ‘This is not a warrantless surveillance of Americans’

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said Sunday he is confident that the updated Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will pass the House.

The Intelligence Reform and American Security Act, announced last week, extends Section 702 of FISA, which allows the government to spy on noncitizens living overseas. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) urged his colleagues on Friday to support the bill, as some members have voiced opposition to it.

Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” if the latest bill would pass the House, Turner said he believed it would.

“I think so. I think it will. I think the number of people who get this wrong is smaller than the number of people who understand that this goes to the core of our ability to acquire intelligence. We can keep the public safe. This is not warrantless surveillance of Americans,” he told co-host Jake Tapper on Sunday.

Turner emphasized that the measure is aimed at spying on foreign nationals abroad, not foreign nationals in the United States. He also said the Information Committee “contributed to the drafting of the bill.”

“And Jake, thank you for bringing this up because…this is surveillance, surveillance of foreign nationals overseas…we are not surveillance of foreign nationals in the United States. . We’re not monitoring Americans who are in the United States,” he said.

“Those who say this is a warrantless search of American citizens’ data are just not telling the truth. These are foreign nationals overseas. They are the select group who pose a national security threat. “It’s a group of people,” he added.

Turner said Americans want “certainty” that the United States is protecting their country from outside groups, including terrorist organizations. The updated bill does not include a warrant requirement that some critics say creates delays that prevent intelligence agencies from responding to threats in real time.

“We’re not spying on Americans. This is not a warrantless surveillance program. This is just foreign nationals overseas, and this needs to go through,” he said.