House passes Foreign Surveillance Act

President’s tweets caused confusion

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s tweets about a key U.S. spying law threw the House into temporary disarray Thursday, but lawmakers did renew the law — with a new restriction on when the FBI can dig into the communications of Americans swept up in foreign surveillance.

During a morning of House votes and presidential tweets, Trump’s national intelligence director also issued new guidance for how officials can find out the names of Americans whose identities are blacked out in classified intelligence reports.

Trump has said that previous rules were far too lax and led to damaging leaks about top aides, a claim fiercely contested by Democrats.

Meanwhile, in a House showdown over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, they reauthorized a collection program set to expire on Jan. 19. The bill passed 256-164 and is headed to the Senate. It would extend for six years the program, which includes massive monitoring of international communications.

Trump has said he’ll sign the renewal, but his first tweets suggested he had suddenly turned against the program, alarming intelligence officials.

In one tweet, Trump linked the program to a dossier that alleges his presidential campaign had ties to Russia.

“‘House votes on controversial FISA ACT today,’ ” Trump wrote. “This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?”

Trump then spoke by telephone with House Speaker Paul Ryan.

And a short time later, Trump tweeted: “This vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!”

Democrats pounced on his earlier criticism.

“This is irresponsible, untrue, and frankly it endangers our national security,” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the Senate intelligence committee’s top Democrat, tweeted.

National Intelligence Director Dan Coats applauded the House action, saying it was a critical step in protecting Americans and U.S. allies and “I have faith that my former colleagues in the Senate will follow the House’s lead.”

Lawmakers had begun the day readying for two votes related to the program that intelligence officials call the “holy grail” because it provides insight into the thinking and actions of U.S. adversaries.

Although the program focuses on foreign targets, Americans’ emails, phone calls and other communications are swept up in the process. Privacy advocates and lawmakers from both parties have long argued that government agencies should need warrants if they want to look at Americans’ communications in the database.

The vote cut across party lines: 65 Democrats joined 191 Republicans to pass the bill. Forty-five Republicans and 119 Democrats voted no.