by WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans will try again Friday to advance a bill that would reauthorize a vital national security surveillance program, a second attempt just days after a conservative rebellion prevented similar legislation from reaching the floor.
Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to introduce a Plan B that would amend and extend a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act known as Section 702 for a shortened two-year period, instead of the full five-year reauthorization originally proposed. GOP critics are expected to be swayed by the shorter timeline.
“We are going to try to find a way to unlock the rule. And I think it’s possible,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday afternoon, referring to the step needed to bring up the legislation. “I mean, there are some differences of opinion. But I think everyone – pretty much everyone – understands the need to do this right and do it.”
It is unclear whether Johnson, who has called the program “vital” to national security, will have the Republican support needed to move forward.
Suspicion of the government’s spying powers has grown dramatically in recent years, particularly on the right. Republicans have wrestled for months over what legislative reform of the surveillance program would look like, creating divisions that spilled over onto the House floor this week when 19 Republicans broke with their party to block it. to put the bill up for a vote.
However, some of the original opponents expressed their support for the new plan late Thursday.
“The two-year time frame is a much better landing spot because it gives us two years to see if any of this works rather than kicking it out five years,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said Thursday. “They say these reforms will work. Well, I guess we’ll find out.”
The legislation in question would allow the US government to collect, without a warrant, the communications of non-Americans located outside the country in order to gather foreign intelligence. The reauthorization is currently tied to a series of amendments aimed at appeasing critics who have complained of civil liberties violations against Americans.
But far-right opponents have complained that those changes did not go far enough. Among the detractors are some of Johnson’s staunchest critics, members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, who have railed against the speaker for months to cross the aisle to carry out basic government functions.
To appease some of those critics, Johnson plans to put forward a separate proposal next week that would close a loophole that allows US officials to collect data on Americans from major tech companies without a warrant. .
“It all added up to something that gave me more comfort,” Roy said.
The bill’s house passage is dependent on GOP support as Democrats on Thursday did not rule out helping Johnson break the impasse on the legislation.
Although the program is technically set to expire April 19, the Biden administration has said it expects its intelligence-gathering authority to remain operational for at least another year, thanks to an earlier comment by the this month from the Foreign Surveillance Court, which receives surveillance requests. . But officials say court approval should not be substituted for congressional authorization, especially since communications companies could stop cooperating with the government.
First authorized in 2008, the spying tool has been renewed several times since then because US officials consider it essential to disrupt terrorist attacks, cyber attacks and foreign espionage. It has also provided intelligence that the US relies on for specific operations.
But the administration’s efforts to secure reauthorization of the program have repeatedly turned out to be fierce and bipartisan, with Democrats like longtime civil liberties Sen. Ron Wyden aligning with Republican supporters of the former President Donald Trump, posted on Truth Social. He incorrectly said on Wednesday that Section 702 was used to spy on his presidential campaign.
“Kill FISA,” Trump wrote in all caps. “It was used illegally against me, and many others. They spied on my campaign.” A former adviser to his 2016 presidential campaign was targeted for surveillance over possible ties to Russia under another section of the law.
A particular area of concern for lawmakers is the FBI’s use of the vast trove of information to search for information about Americans and others in the U.S. While the surveillance program only targets non-Americans in other countries, it collects communications from Americans when they are inside. contact with those targeted aliens.
Over the past year, US officials have exposed a series of abuses and mistakes made by FBI analysts when they improperly searched the intelligence repository for information about Americans or other people in the US, including about member of Congress and participants in the 2020 racial justice protests and the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.
Those violations have resulted in requiring the FBI to have a warrant before conducting database queries on Americans, which FBI director Chris Wray warned would undermine the program’s effectiveness and be unnecessary. also from a legal point of view since the information in the database has already been placed legally. collected.
“While it is critical that we ensure that this critical authority of 702 does not lapse, we must also not diminish the effectiveness of this essential tool with a warranty requirement or similar restriction, thereby paralyzing our ability to fight with fast-moving threats,” Wray said. in a speech on Tuesday.
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Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
