WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled House approved a three-year reauthorization of a divisive U.S. surveillance program ahead of its expiration on Friday, adding new oversight measures but stopping short of the warrant requirement that critics have demanded.
A large group of Democrats joined most Republicans to pass the bill in a 235-191 vote. The three-year extension still faces an uncertain path to passage, with a sign-off needed from the Senate
and President Donald Trump.
“Let’s wait and see what they pass,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Wednesday about the chamber's support.
The passage in the House was a breakthrough for Republican leaders after Speaker Mike Johnson earlier in the day secured the support of several Republican holdouts to advance the bill to a final vote. The chamber had been unable to pass a long-term extension since Republican leaders earlier this month staged a hectic late-night effort to extend the surveillance program, only to see multiple bills fail on the floor.
Out of options, Republicans settled on a short-term extension through April 30 to work on a solution. Trump, along with CIA Director John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Kash Patel, had originally pushed for an 18-month extension of the program with no changes.
“Two-thirds of the president’s daily national security briefing comes from intelligence collected by that statute,” Johnson said about the program. “We cannot allow it to go dark.”
The debate centers on a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, that allows the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and other agencies to collect and analyze communications from foreign targets without a warrant. In doing so, the agencies can incidentally sweep up communications involving Americans who interact with foreign targets, an element of the program many lawmakers find unacceptable.
“The intel community always just comes in and says, ‘People will die if you do this,’” Republican Rep. Chip Roy said Tuesday, arguing in favor of a warrant requirement. “Well, I’m sorry. A lot of Americans died to give us and protect that Fourth Amendment right that we don’t have government looking at our stuff.”
The House bill does not include the warrant requirement. Instead, it would impose new oversight measures, including a monthly civil liberties review of U.S. person queries by an official within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, with any violations referred to the Intelligence Community’s inspector general.
The bill would also create criminal penalties for officials who knowingly misuse the system or falsify compliance, order a government audit of targeting practices and require new procedures to expand congressional access to FISA court proceedings.
House Democrats took turns criticizing the extension on the floor ahead of Wednesday evening’s planned final vote. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, derided the measure as a “three-year blank check” that comes “without any meaningful guardrails.”
“Under this bill, FBI agents will still collect, search and review Americans' communications without any review from a judge,” said Raskin.
Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, spoke in favor of the extension, calling the program “without question, the most important foreign intelligence tool." Himes, who voted for the extension, said the bill makes guardrails on the program "marginally and modestly stronger.”
Thune said he has been in contact with Johnson throughout the process, the next steps are uncertain if the bill clears the House.
“We'll see,” he said Wednesday.
One obstacle is that House Republicans are linking the surveillance renewal with separate legislation banning a central bank digital currency — a proposal Thune has said would be “very, very hard to pass" in the Senate.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a longtime advocate for FISA reform, said the deal the House is working on is “deeply flawed,” but declined to say whether he would support an extension.
Thune on Wednesday floated another short-term extension of the program while lawmakers figured out final details. He said a 60-day extension “could be a landing spot.”
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Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.
