Friday’s passage came only after Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP leaders shortened the length of the program’s extension amid resistance from former President Donald Trump.
The House on Friday passed legislation reauthorizing a controversial government surveillance power — capping off a monthslong debate marked by acrimonious GOP infighting.
The 273-147 bipartisan vote is a win for embattled Speaker Mike Johnson, who has struggled publicly to bridge the deep divides within his conference. But it also puts him at odds with some of his biggest conservative critics, 88 of whom opposed the bill, as he faces the threat of an ouster vote.
The bill still needs to get through the Senate and to President Joe Biden’s desk by the April 19 deadline for reauthorizing the spy power.
Friday’s vote comes just two days after 19 Republicans prevented Johnson from even bringing a bill to the floor to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the intelligence community to collect the communications of foreign targets without a warrant.
Another dramatic turn came just ahead of the bill’s final passage, with a proposal to require warrants when searching foreign data collected by the surveillance program for information related to Americans failed on 212-212 tie.
The Biden administration and members of the Intelligence Committee waged an intense lobbying effort ahead of the vote; Attorney General Merrick Garland was calling members on Friday to urge their support for the bill and opposition to the warrant requirement, according to a person familiar with the conversations who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
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The House has voted to reauthorize FISA, a controversial government spy power — capping off months of bitter GOP infighting and pushback of Speaker Johnson.https://t.co/tIImt1PxLO
— POLITICO (@politico) April 12, 2024
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