Jim Himes wants to reauthorize a controversial surveillance law. He knows it comes with big risks.
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is seeking a bipartisan deal to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, while Republicans are busy fighting among themselves over how to prevent the government spying power from expiring on April 30.
Fearing a default would create an existential crisis, he has been empowered by the House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries To share his perspective with fellow Democrats who are skeptical of reauthorizing Section 702 without guardrails to protect Americans from being targeted by the Trump Administration. And he is facing criticism from progressives in his district for being open to cleanup expansion, despite his priorities of revising spy authority.
Himes is also talking to the White House — but often finds herself out of the negotiating loop with House Republican leaders, who are more focused on trying to hammer a deal through their ultra-thin margins than finding common ground with Democrats.
“I’ve been contacted a lot” about the issue, Himes, of Connecticut, said in a lengthy interview in his Capitol Hill office Thursday. “None of this is like, ‘Come into this room to negotiate this deal today.'”
There is a lot at stake for Himes as he deals with the difficult politics around surveillance legislation viewed with deep suspicion by many progressives and conservatives. And in an effort to build cross-party consensus around spying legislation, he has set out on a potentially thankless mission.
He is challenging Republicans’ appetite for bipartisan compromise in the Trump era — and so far, he is being largely ignored by GOP leaders. He’s also testing whether Democrats will add their names to any legislation that gives the appearance of emboldening an administration they view as corrupt — and that’s becoming more difficult by the day.
“I’m taking a lot of risks, I’m giving a lot of explanations,” Himes said later Thursday.
If he succeeds in piecing together some of the fractured coalitions to expand Section 702 with meaningful guardrails, he will have achieved a feat of political compromise rarely seen these days. But if he is unable to help broker a deal and must support an apparent extension in the interest of protecting national security, he will undoubtedly take fresh heat from progressives, perhaps as a credible primary challenger.
A long-term candidate trying to unseat Himes in the Democratic primary based on the incumbent’s FISA stance — Joseph Perez-Caputo, a local activist — is leading constituent protests against the legislator in the House.
“We have witnessed a situation in extreme horror,” Perez-Caputo said in an interview of Himes’s scramble to secure a Section 702 settlement.
A new letter from a half-dozen groups in Connecticut, first shared with POLITICO, calls on Himes to step down as the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, saying she has “betrayed” her obligations to her constituents and the Constitution — including by “actively lobbying other Democrats and Republicans to support the administration’s FISA agenda.”
Himes is familiar with the dynamic, recalling having his “head blown off” by frustrated participants during a demonstration in his district last month, adding, “There’s a tremendous amount of misinformation out there that needs to be addressed.”
Ultimately, Himes says, he is motivated by a sense of duty in this fight. During Thursday’s interview, he repeatedly stressed that he preferred to expand spying powers with policy changes, such as seeking judicial review for searches under the program, rather than continuing the status quo.
Rather, Himes explained, his position on the intelligence panel uniquely enables him to understand the scope and stakes of repealing Section 702. And if the choice had to be made between passing a clean extension or letting the program terminate, the default would be a nonstarter.
“Three months from now, if FISA 702 is dark and there’s a bomb in Grand Central, there will be very little doubt in my mind … that it happened because we shut down our most important counterintelligence,” Himes said.
“So I don’t blame them,” he added of members who would prefer the program’s omission rather than supporting clean expansion. “But I just look at with some nuance — in fact, more detail than anyone else around here — what risks we face.”
Despite Himes’ pleas, many House Democrats remain skeptical. Massachusetts Representative Stephen Lynch said in an interview Thursday that he would vote against reauthorization for the first time in his 25 years in the House if the legislation does not install new guardrails on warrantless government surveillance.
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. greg kaiser (D-Texas) said he respects Himes and appreciates that she has attended caucus meetings to share her perspective on the issue. But, he said in an interview, the decision was easy: “We must now unite to say, ‘No, Trump does not use power responsibly.'”
Himes said his senior role on the House Intelligence Committee means he never wants to trust any administration — and he “especially” doesn’t trust this one. But he insisted that during his role on the panel he was never presented with any evidence that President Donald Trump or senior White House officials tried to interfere with Americans’ privacy.
“Over the last 14 months,” he said, “there has not been a single example of their attempting to abuse this database. I am conscious of something that is difficult to explain to people, which is, there is no program that is more watchful than this one. None.”
Representative. gregory meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, who is also aware of classified information not shared with most of his colleagues, had a similar view.
“I don’t want it to be on my conscience that something happened that we could have prevented,” Meeks said in an interview. “It’s the responsibility that Jim has and the burden of time of being the ranking member and former chairman of Intel.”
Some Republicans downplayed Himes’ role in the FISA negotiations because GOP leaders are following a partisan path. House Intelligence Chair rick crawford Questioned how much backchanneling Himes has been doing with Republicans, while noting that he considers the ranking member a friend.
“We try to be considerate of him and his concerns, and I think he extends the same courtesy to me,” the Arkansas Republican said in an interview Thursday. “So we have a good working relationship. And I think that’s helpful.”
As the April 30 deadline to expand FISA spying authority approaches, Himes is continuing to talk with colleagues from both parties, but also thinking strategically about what and how can pass the House.
He and the senior House Judiciary Democrat, Rep. jamie raskin Maryland is working on potential backup plans with policy changes that could attract more Democratic support in case Republicans fail to pass their partisan bill.
He is also now interested in finding a set of reforms that can be supported by a two-thirds majority of the House so that legislation can move forward under an expedited process, known as suspension, which does not require a party-line “rules” vote to approve it first.
Himes said there was a “real opportunity” to pass a bill under suspension last week, when Speaker Mike Johnson tried unsuccessfully to pass an 18-month extension bill through the regular order process at midnight. But Johnson’s failure, Himes continued, encouraged Democrats to stand back and watch the GOP falter.
Describing himself as a “messenger” during the overnight vote, Himes said bluntly: “A group of members, watching the Speaker fall flat on his face at two in the morning, doesn’t help me.”
