House preserves FBI surveillance powers
WASHINGTON >> The House passed a bipartisan adjustment of key surveillance laws Wednesday, cobbling together an unusual coalition of lawmakers to approve some new privacy protections for Americans and extend three expiring FBI tools for investigating terrorism and espionage.
The vote appeared to be a breakthrough after weeks of negotiations in both the House and the Senate to prevent the surveillance tools from expiring this weekend and to address abuses identified in FBI applications to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser. Although civil libertarians in both parties opposed it as a half-measure that fell short of the kind of sweeping protections they favor, the bill passed with strong Democratic and Republican support, 278-136.
“It is by no means a perfect bill,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He said he would have liked further changes, “but this bill includes important reforms.”
In the Senate, Republican leaders were trying to line up an expedited vote for today, but their aides said it would depend on whether the bill’s opponents would use Senate rules to slow down passage. A handful of senators have long championed broader surveillance changes, and argue that the House changes leave Americans’ privacy at risk of intrusion by government investigators.
Even if they stall the bill, once it does make it to a Senate vote, a similar bipartisan coalition of lawmakers most likely will amount to the 60 votes needed to overcome objections.
Congress was set to leave town today for a weeklong recess, and it was not clear how quickly the Senate could act — and whether it would allow the expiring FBI tools to temporarily lapse.
Republican House officials involved in the negotiations said they had assurances that President Donald Trump would sign the bill into law if it reaches his desk, although they conceded its opponents could still try to sway him to object and ask for further changes. The president has long nursed theories that the FBI spied on his campaign and at one point suggested to lawmakers that he would not reauthorize the expiring provisions without broader changes.