Hill Republican leaders find themselves in a seemingly never-ending crisis over the fate of government spying legislation, which has set off a bitter, interpartisan fight within the House, and also threatens to derail several other GOP priorities.
Republicans now have very few legislative days to make new plans to expand Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. But President Donald Trump, GOP leaders and White House officials have failed for months to craft a workable framework — and there is still no agreement on a way forward.
Some House Republicans hope they are in the final stages of planning a multi-year extension that would include some small changes aimed at placating privacy opponents. Others are already predicting they will face the same internal dispute on April 30, when the current short-term extension ends.
For many Republicans, the high-drama meltdown in the House was entirely predictable and came months after Trump sought an apparent expansion of the surveillance law despite well-documented skepticism within his own party.
“A train wreck,” said the Tennessee Republican representative. andy ogles This was described when he walked out of the House in the early hours of Friday morning. speaker mike johnson Its conference ultimately attempted and failed to secure long-term reauthorization after several days of fruitless negotiations.
“I don’t know how we’re going to resolve it,” said one House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the current impasse.
It’s gotten to the point where Senate Republicans, who have largely taken a back seat on FISA until now, are warning they’re prepared to take up the issue if the House can’t figure it out.
“We just need optionality here,” the Senate majority leader said. john thune He spoke about the path forward Friday, shortly after the House passed a 10-day emergency Section 702 extension to avert the impending expiration. “I don’t know what the House will be able to do, and so we will prepare accordingly.”
The task facing Republicans is only being complicated by the fact that this week they were supposed to take the first steps in the Senate to advance the budget blueprint, which is necessary to begin the party-line reconciliation process that would provide funding for the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement activities.
Trump has given Congress a June 1 deadline to get that reconciliation bill to his desk and reopen the long-shuttered DHS. The two people, who declined to discuss private scheduling, said Senate Republicans will still be able to advance the budget resolution this week as planned. But House Republicans will either need to quickly resolve their differences over the future of Section 702 or risk this policy fight colliding with expected disagreements over the scope of the reconciliation package next week.
“We were very close tonight,” Johnson said at 2 a.m. Friday after 20 Republicans rejected a procedural rule needed to advance his latest effort to pass the long-term Section 702 reauthorization.
He limited the GOP rebellion to “some nuances with language, and some questions that need to be answered.” The emergency 10-day extension, he argued, gives Republicans more time to put those pieces together.
But Johnson will have his work cut out for him as he tries to figure out how to satisfy conservative hardliners who want more protections to prevent warrantless surveillance of Americans. Trump has insisted on clean reauthorization and has been resistant to more sweeping policy changes.
After Johnson unveiled the legislative text of a five-year extension of the surveillance program late Thursday, House GOP hardliners immediately revolted at what they described as “an inexplicable five-year extension, requiring fake warrants, and going back on this afternoon’s promise to include CBDCs.”
The member was referring to a central bank digital currency. Leaders previously promised ultraconservatives a ban on it, and Section 702 holdouts now say the prohibition should be included as part of any spy powers reauthorization deal. This particular policy fight has already blocked passage of bipartisan housing legislation.
majority leader steve scalise He said in an interview around midnight Friday that House Republicans are “still working on another legislative vehicle” where they could potentially impose a CBDC ban. “We’re going to find a place for it.”
It’s a tough sell, as some conservatives have acknowledged that the White House is not on board with the plan, and Thune warned in an interview late last week that its inclusion would take away support from Democrats, whose votes would be needed to pass any Section 702 reauthorization in the Senate.
It doesn’t help that morale among House Republicans is under new strain.
When the speaker contacted the representative. andy biggs (R-Ariz.), a leading opponent of government surveillance programs, scrambled on the House floor Friday night to secure an agreement for an emergency patch, with Biggs telling the speaker that their previous deal was “off,” according to three Republicans who heard it, who were granted anonymity to recount a private exchange.
More liberal House Republicans are losing patience with the impasse. One GOP centrist, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, called Friday’s floor meltdown “ridiculous” and said the speaker “didn’t have much of a plan to begin with.”
Representative. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) warned: “You have to make a deal with the Democrats.”
Four moderate Democrats helped Republicans on a party-line vote, paving the way for passage of the 18-month clean up authorization: Rep. jared golden of main, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Mary Gluesenkamp Perez and Washington Tom Suozzi Of New York. But this was not enough to compensate for the 20 Republican defectors.
Democrats also have to face division within their own camp. Sen Ron Widen (D-Ore.), a longtime privacy advocate, argued that the House setback gives new momentum to a bipartisan coalition that wants more sweeping changes, including stronger warrant provisions.
“We are going to remove all barriers,” Wyden told reporters after the stopgap passed without objection on the Senate floor on Friday. “We are ready to move forward and fight for the full package of reforms.”
Anyway back to the House, Rep. Jim Himes The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, from Connecticut, is pushing for the clean expansion. On Friday night he was seen speaking to various Republican members, including GOP leaders and hard-liners.
At one point, Himes was heard on a phone call in the Speaker’s lobby saying he was in a rare position to conduct “shuttle diplomacy” between the Speaker and House Freedom Caucus members.
Himes later said in an interview, “What I learned tonight was that Republicans don’t talk to each other.” “They certainly don’t talk to us – but they don’t talk to each other either.”
