HOUSE ‘SPY’ NIX
Votes down FISA foreign surveillance
The House voted down a bill reauthorizing the federal government’s foreign surveillance capabilities Wednesday after former President Donald Trump demanded lawmakers “KILL” it — and despite support for the proposal from House Speaker Mike Johnson, a majority of Republicans and family members of Americans killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
The House voted 228-193 against advancing the rule to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) before it expires on April 19.
Nineteen Republicans and 209 Democrats voted down the rule, with many voicing concerns over its failure to constrain intelligence agencies from surveilling Americans’ personal data without a warrant and some knocking its inclusion in a rule vote with other conservative priorities.
“We’re enacting sweeping changes — 50 reforms, 56 to be exact — to the program . . . that will stop the abuse of politicized FBI queries and prevent another Russia hoax debacle, among many other important reforms,” Johnson (R-La.) told reporters ahead of the vote earlier Wednesday.
“No more Steele dossier, no more of the intelligence community relying on fake news reports to order a FISA order, no more collusion,” he added. “It’s critical we address these abuses because we don’t want to be able to lose section 702 of FISA. It’s a critically important piece of our intelligence and law enforcement in this country.”
‘Stop the terrorists’
“Because it allows us to continue killing Hamas terrorists, you have to stop the terrorists before they kill Americans,” he went on. “It allows us to track shipments of the illicit chemicals used to make fentanyl. It allows us to protect US warships from attacks by Houthi rebels. It allows us to stop China from stealing American intellectual property and it prevents ransomware attacks against American companies.”
The 9/11 Families United group also wrote a letter to Johnson Tuesday that “strongly urge[d]” him to reauthorize the intelligence capability, warning that letting it sunset “would be detrimental to American national security and would put Americans at risk of new terrorist attacks,” according to a copy of their letter obtained by The Post.
“We understand that the intelligence community uses these provisions on a constant basis to protect Americans from murderous attacks like those on September 11, as well as other new threats that have emerged over the past 22 years,” they added.
Congressional privacy hawks pushed for an amendment Tuesday to the FISA reform bill, H.R. 7888, which would require the FBI and other intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant to spy on Americans’ private communications.
That amendment to end warrantless queries of US data passed the House Judiciary Committee in a bipartisan bill in December, with 35 members voting in support and two opposing it.