House GOP Abandons Potential Votes on Dueling FISA Bills

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday members of both committees met Monday night but remained at odds over key provisions for updating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The committees offered some 45 revisions, and disagreement remains on four or five of those, he said: “We're working toward consensus, but this is a very, very serious matter. This isn't some minor policy in our law. ... I think we've got to do it right. And so, we're going to allow the time to do that.” A short-term extension for FISA through April, which Johnson included in the National Defense Authorization Act, will allow committees from both chambers to craft a compromise, he said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a joint statement Thursday they are committed to work “in good faith with our Senate Chairs and Ranking Members and the House to negotiate a final bill that can be passed on a bipartisan basis by both the House and Senate early next year.”

Johnson told members in a dear colleague letter Thursday he planned to bring the two bills to the floor this week, as early as Tuesday. However, Johnson abandoned those plans after disagreement within the Republican Caucus over an approach that would have potentially sent one of the bills to the Senate for consideration. Johnson referenced in his letter a rule “that provides members a fair opportunity to vote in favor of their preferred measure.”

The House Rules Committee discussed four pieces of surveillance legislation during a hearing Monday. “We no longer anticipate further consideration” of the House Judiciary Committee’s HR-6611 “as previously announced,” said Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., at the conclusion of the hearing.

“We were all set to go,” House Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes, D-Conn., told us Tuesday. The Biden administration spent “hundreds of hours” leading up to the potential votes on the House floor, he said: Then Republicans “lit the dumpster on fire in the Rules Committee,” deciding not “to do what the speaker asked them to do.” Cole’s office didn’t comment Tuesday.

While a short-term extension will help Congress negotiate specifics, Himes stressed the urgency in getting FISA reforms approved: “This isn’t a government shutdown we’re talking about. This is Americans dying we’re talking about.”

“This is what happens every time,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who is more supportive of the House Judiciary Committee measure than the bill from House Intelligence. “I promise. We’ll get to April” and discuss kicking the can further down the road after the election. “It’s time for us to legislate it,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., a House Judiciary member.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and ranking member Marco Rubio, R-Fla., don’t support the House Judiciary’s proposal, which includes a warrant requirement. “If you wanted to destroy [FISA Section] 702’s ability to provide critical intelligence, that bill will do it,” said Warner: It goes “much further” than the bipartisan bill introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., (see 2311070065). Warner said there are only “small differences” between what the Senate Intelligence Committee and House Intelligence Committee have proposed.

“There’s a pretty big gulf at this point” between the various bills, said Rubio. Nobody is asking for a clean reauthorization of FISA, but an extension will give more time to try to reach a bicameral agreement, he said.