The House of Representatives have delayed a vote on reforming the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and Section 702.

“In order to allow Congress more time to reach consensus on how best to reform FISA and Section 702 while maintaining the integrity of our critical national security programs, the House will consider the reform and reauthorization bill at a later date,” Raj Shah, a spokesman for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) stated on X.

“Just as we were winning the debate on requiring warrants for domestic spying in the FISA 702 reauthorization, the Speaker yanked the bill and cancelled the rest of Congress this week,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) commented.

“Suggestion: postpone consideration until never. The mechanism by which the corrupt FBI spies on innocent Americans and cooks up bogus hoaxes to rig our elections should never be reauthorized ever again,” The Federalist CEO and co-founder Sean Davis said.

Section 702 of FISA gives the federal government the power to conduct warrantless spying on foreigners abroad and Americans they interact with.

Section 702 was set to expire at the end of last year, but Congress extended the expiration date into April.

The FISA extension was included in the passage of last year’s $886 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

U.S. Senate Approves National Defense Authorization Act, Extends FISA Warrantless Spying

“The Senate just voted to waive the point of order against the NDAA. 35 of us opposed the motion to waive. We needed only 41 to prevent this outcome, and to remove FISA 702 from the NDAA. This is not good. The House should stop the NDAA,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said.

“It was close in the Senate, but now it’s up to the House tomorrow to stop the reauthorization of warrantless spying on Americans,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) commented.

“Our government invades Americans’ privacy without a warrant, using the FISA 702 program. That’s unconstitutional. Thursday, we will have a recorded vote on an amendment to reform this program so the feds will have to get a warrant to search US citizens’ communications,” Massie said Wednesday morning.

With the vote delayed, it’s unclear when the House will reform the unlawful FISA 702 program.

“Very interested to learn about this threat. Also very interested to know why the spy guys are raising mysterious alarms right before we’re about to reform illegal domestic surveillance under FISA,” Lee commented.

Just the News noted:

Intelligence community abuse and the potential for gathering American information in the process has prompted some Republicans to seek reform. Section 702 was slated to expire at the end of 2023, though Congress temporarily extended it into April amid dueling reform proposals.

Both the House Intelligence Committee and House Judiciary Committee had drafted legislation to reform Section 702, with the Judiciary panel seeking more extensive restrictions on surveillance powers.

The current legislation under consideration more closely resembles the Intelligence Committee proposal and has struggled to attract support from conservative privacy hawks who hope to include warrant requirements.

“Debate on the FISA 702 program and whether the government must get a warrant is happening in the @RulesReps committee now. @Jim_Jordan and Nadler are both testifying in favor of warrants. I’m posting this untrimmed video without captions so I can get it into the public quickly,” Massie wrote.

WATCH:

From Roll Call:

The office of Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., also sent out a notice that the bill is no longer expected to be considered this week. Without congressional action, Section 702 is set to expire April 19.

Section 702 allows the U.S. government to collect digital communications of foreigners located outside the country. But the program has been the subject of lawmaker concern because it also brings in the communications of Americans and allows the FBI to search through the information without a warrant. The agency can search through the data based on a single field, such as an email address.

The House last year, with lawmakers at odds on two bills that differ in how far to go to address privacy concerns, was unable to pass a longer-term reauthorization in December and instead approved a short-term reauthorization.

The House Judiciary Committee has advanced one bill, and the House Intelligence Committee has advanced another. On Monday, Republicans posted a new bill, which more closely resembles the Intelligence Committee bill, for consideration on the floor.

 

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