Conservative revolt blocks effort to reauthorize spy tool

A bill that would reauthorize a crucial national security surveillance program was blocked Wednesday by a conservative revolt, pushing the prospects of final passage into uncertainty. The legislative impasse follows an edict earlier in the day from former President Donald Trump to “kill” the measure.

The breakdown comes months after a similar process to reform and reauthorize the surveillance program fell apart before it even reached the House floor. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has called the program “critically important” but has struggled to find a path forward on the issue, which has been plagued by partisan bickering for years. The procedural vote to bring up the bill Wednesday failed 193228, with nearly 20 Republicans voting no.

“We're going to regroup and consider next steps,” Johnson told reporters after the vote failed. “We can't allow this important provision to expire.”

It marks the latest blow to Johnson's leadership as he faces being ousted from his job in the same stunning fashion as his predecessor. Hours before the vote, the Republican leader made a final push urging for passage, saying Congress must “address these abuses” without cutting off the surveillance program entirely.

The bill's failure also reflected the ideological shift in the Republican Party, which for years after the Sept. 11 attacks supported expansive surveillance in the name of national security but has more recently walked back from that position thanks in part to lingering outrage over the FBI's investigation into Trump's 2016 campaign. That skepticism of the government's spy powers has created an unusual alliance between far-right Republicans and civil liberties-minded Democrats.

The bill would renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of nonAmericans located outside the country to gather foreign intelligence. The reauthorization is currently tied to a series of reforms aimed at satisfying critics who complained of civil liberties violations against Americans.

But Republican opponents have complained that those changes did not go far enough. Among the detractors are some of Johnson's harshest critics, members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, who have railed the speaker for reaching across the aisle several times since taking the gavel in October to carry out the basic functions of the government.

It remains unclear now if the proposal, backed by the Biden administration and Johnson, would have enough votes to advance.

Though the program would technically expire on April 19, the Biden administration said it expects its authority to collect intelligence to remain operational for at least another year, thanks to an earlier opinion from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees surveillance applications.