Efforts to revise the government’s spying powers were again put on hold Wednesday by House Speaker Mike Johnson amid unresolved disputes on how to best tackle concerns about Americans’ privacy.
The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act was yanked from a scheduled floor vote this week in the middle of a House Rules Committee hearing that would have teed up the legislation.
The bill was geared toward reforming the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Section 702, which gives the government broad powers to collect massive amounts of electronic data that is parsed through for evidence of foreign plots and other dangers.
But the scope of that reform has been mired in heated debate between the House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee.
“In order to allow Congress more time to reach consensus on how best to reform FISA and Section 702 while maintaining the integrity of our critical national security programs, the House will consider the reform and reauthorization bill at a later date,” said Raj Shah, a spokesperson for Mr. Johnson, on X.
Members of the Judiciary Committee contend that Section 702 is being used on U.S. citizens, and needs to be curtailed with warrant requirements. But members of the intelligence panel argue that doing so would kneecap the purpose of the spying powers and hamper law enforcement.
Pulling the bill now adds more of a time crunch on leaders to enact changes before the spying powers expire in April. The House is out next week and will soon be mired in another race to avoid a partial government shutdown.
Mr. Johnson previously punted FISA reauthorization in December after trying to address dueling bills from the battling panels.
The ongoing FISA debate has caused the joining of unlikely forces, with House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, and Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the ranking Democrat on the panel, aligned in their view that Section 702 needs to be reined in.
During the Rules Committee hearing, Mr. Jordan argued that the base bill put forth by Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, did some good things, such as specifying who can approve a Section 702 query and requiring a written justification for how the query is run.
But the legislation still allows the FBI to oversee itself when using the controversial spy powers, he said.
“It’s not just good enough to say ‘we have better rules for them to follow.’ You can have the best rules in place, but if they already demonstrated they won’t follow them, that’s not enough,” Mr. Jordan said. “That’s why you need a warrant.”
Members of the intelligence panel contend that adding warrant requirements would hurt the fundamental purpose of FISA.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said lawmakers seeking to tack on a warrant requirement to the bill would be the end of the government’s surveillance powers.
“Their version of the warrant requirement would put an end to FISA,” said Mr. Crenshaw, Texas Republican. “They don’t understand FISA fundamentally.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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