Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN’s “The Situation Room” on Wednesday that there is a “very high risk” if the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is not reauthorized. ”.
Host Wolf Blitzer said, “Today, with Warren as director of FR=BI, will American lives be at risk if Congress does not reauthorize FISA, the foreign intelligence surveillance agency?”
Director McCaul said, “I agree with Coach Ray 100%. In a previous life, I was a federal counterterrorism prosecutor after 9/11. I worked with the FBI on FISA warrants. If we don’t reauthorize FISA tomorrow and go dark, whether Hamas disappears from the Middle East or Iran, the world will actually become more dangerous. “It would put the American people at risk when there are jihadists in Afghanistan.”
He added, “Now is the wrong time to play politics with this.”
“The reservations for FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, appear to be open to some amendments, meaning the new version of the bill is not the five-year authorization that many are hoping for,” Blitzer said. This will be a two-year reauthorization.” Is he okay with at least a two-year grace period?”
“It would be very dangerous to let FISA lapse, so we’re going to reauthorize it,” McCaul said.
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