Speaker Johnson to Move on Spy Powers Reauthorization in April

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Thursday that the House will likely vote on a bill to reauthorize controversial spy powers next month.

Johnson told Politico that he plans on holding a vote to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The Speaker has already punted twice on moves to reauthorize the controversial surveillance law and has to grapple with deep divisions between more reform-minded lawmakers and those who wish to reauthorize the law with minimal reform.

Congress has until April 19 to reauthorize the law.

Section 702 is a law that allows intelligence agencies to collect communications of targeted foreigners. It also may lead to targeted surveillance of Americans’ private communications, which privacy advocates consider a run around the Fourth Amendment’s requirement for a warrant.

“The current plan is to run FISA as a standalone the week after Easter,” Johnson told Politico.

He explained that the current plan is to use a compromise bill that was negotiated by Republican leadership and members of the Judiciary and Intelligence committees.

The bill largely resembles the House Intelligence Committee proposal, which reform-centric lawmakers such as Reps. Warren Davidson (R-OH), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) hope to improve with a requirement that a warrant would have to be obtained before using Section 702 — which is meant to target foreigners’ communications  — to search the communications of American citizens.

“The current deliberation is how to handle the two major amendments that are still pending,” Johnson said.

The other amendment would block the federal government from exploiting a loophole that would allow them to purchase Americans’ private data through third-party data brokers. Biggs and others have called this a run around the Fourth Amendment.

After Intelligence Committee lawmakers and reform-minded lawmakers agreed to this compromise bill, with a deal struck to allow amendments, Speaker Johnson pulled the bill in February after the House Intelligence Committee was “smoked” by pro-reform lawmakers.

WATCH — Rep. Jim Jordan: Warrants Should Be Required for Section 702, Separate But Equal Branch Should Hold Intelligence Agencies Accountable

House Rules Committee

Now, it remains to be seen how the House would consider improving the legislation.

The move also follows a Wired report in which Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) portrayed pro-Palestinian protestors with possible ties to Hamas as a reason to kill privacy reform and argue for why the deep state needs Section 702, a law to surveil foreigners, not American citizens.

Biggs wrote, “The FISA 702 spying authority was never meant to be used on Americans. The House Intel Chairman recently admitted otherwise in a closed-door presentation. The Intel Community wants to continue to conduct warrantless spying on peaceful protestors!”

The FISA 702 spying authority was never meant to be used on Americans.

The House Intel Chairman recently admitted otherwise in a closed-door presentation.

The Intel Community wants to continue to conduct warrantless spying on peaceful protestors! https://t.co/htv7CEcg0C

— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) March 12, 2024

Government surveillance does not solely affect pro-Palestinian protestors. Americans along the political spectrum have been surveilled.

WATCH — Matt Gaetz Grills FBI Director Wray: FBI Agents Using FISA as “CREEPY, Personal SNOOP Machine”

House Committee on the Judiciary / YouTube

FreedomWorks and Demand Progress have aggregated just a few of the ways that intelligence agencies have abused Americans’ privacy:

1. “[T]ens of thousands” of baseless searches “related to civil unrest” in a one-year period, including 141 racial justice protestors and thousands of January 6 suspects.
2. Searches for individuals an NSA analyst had met on an online dating site and a prospective tenant.
3. Searches for a state court judge who reported civil rights violations to the FBI.
4. Searches for places of worship that were intentionally hidden from oversight.
5. Searches for a member of HPSCI and a U.S. senator.
6. A “batch” search for 19,000 Congressional donors.
7. “Batch” searches that included current and former federal government officials, journalists, and political commentators.
8. Searches for people who came to the FBI to perform repairs.
9. Searches for victims who came to the FBI to report crimes.
10. Searches for business, religious, and community leaders who applied to participate in the FBI’s “Citizens Academy.”
11. Searches for college students participating in a “Collegiate Academy.”
12. Searches for family members and colleagues.
13. Searches for police officer candidates.
14. Searches for an individual employed by a defense attorney.
15. Searches for a wrongly accused American academic.
16. Searches based on a witness’s report that two men “of Middle Eastern descent” were loading cleaning supplies into a truck.
17. Searches for a local political party.
18. “Batch” searches for 1600 Americans “who had flown through an airport during a particular date range and were either traveling to or returning from a foreign country.”
19. 2,000 searches for “the names and dates of birth of individuals who were registered competitors in an athletic event.”

WATCH — Jim Jordan: There are 204k Reasons to Oppose FISA Reauthorization

House Committee on the Judiciary / YouTube

Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.