After Trump flak, surveillance bill collapses in House
Speaker Johnson suffers defeat by right-wing GOP
WASHINGTON — Rightwing House Republicans on Wednesday blocked legislation to extend an expiring warrantless surveillance law that national security officials call crucial to gathering intelligence and fighting terrorism, dealing Speaker Mike Johnson a stinging defeat after former president Donald Trump urged lawmakers to kill the bill.
In an upset on the House floor, the measure, which would extend a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act known as Section 702, failed what is normally a routine procedural test. On a vote of 228-193, 19 House Republicans, most aligned with the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, joined Democrats in opposing its consideration.
Such defections were once considered unthinkable but have become increasingly common as the hard right has rebelled against party leaders.
It was unclear how Republicans would attempt to move forward.
The setback came just hours after Trump added his powerful voice of opposition to a sizable contingent of rightwing lawmakers who have clamored for a more sweeping FISA overhaul that would severely limit the government’s spying powers. And it unfolded as intelligence officials were visiting Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers and urge them to pass the legislation, which they say is essential to keep the country safe from a terrorist attack.
It was the third time attempts to advance the bill have collapsed in the House. In December, Johnson scrapped plans to hold votes on rival bills to narrow the scope of the law after an ugly fight broke out among Republicans. He pulled the bill again in February.
Complicating matters, Republicans had bundled a procedural measure to open debate on the bill with an unrelated resolution condemning President Joe Biden’s border policies, all but ensuring no Democrats would vote to advance the package. Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, one of the leaders of the party’s hard-right wing, had pledged Tuesday to tank it.
Then Trump weighed in overnight.
“KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!” Trump wrote in a post on social media.
The statement was largely incoherent as a matter of policy. Section 702 allows the government to target foreigners abroad for surveillance without warrants. The instance Trump was apparently referring to — when the FBI obtained wiretap orders on a former campaign adviser to his 2016 campaign as part of the Russia investigation — concerned a different section of FISA for targeting Americans and people on domestic soil in national security inquiries.
But as a matter of politics, Trump’s attack on the measure underscored his lingering grievances about the Russia investigation and his disdain for national security agencies he often disparages as an evil “deep state.” And it resonated with his hard-right allies on Capitol Hill. They see blocking the extension of the law — which government officials say is crucial to their foreign intelligence and counterterrorism work to protect the United States — as a way to inflict pain on the an intelligence community they regard as an enemy.
Section 702 is set to expire April 19. But the program can continue operating until April 2025 because the FISA court last week granted a government request authorizing it for another year. Under the law, the surveillance activity can continue so long as there are active court orders allowing it, even if the underlying statute expires.
Trump’s intervention recalled a similar episode in early 2018. He set off last-minute turmoil then with a social media broadside against FISA just as House Republicans were scrambling to secure enough support to extend Section 702 before it expired, a move backed by his administration.