The House rejected a final effort by hard-line Republicans to block the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act over objections a measure was not included to prohibit warrantless searches by the federal government.
Lawmakers voted 259-128 to table a motion to reconsider, paving the way for the House to send the FISA bill to the Senate before its expiration date on Friday. The vote comes after a group of House Republicans, led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), sought to impede its transfer to the upper chamber in protest of an amendment that was shot down that would’ve required the federal government to obtain a warrant before executing data searches of U.S. communications in the FISA 702 database.
Typically, the transfer from the lower to upper chamber is merely a formality, but House Republicans introduced a motion to table hoping to bring the bill back to the floor for another vote. Now that the effort has been quashed, the bill will be sent to the Senate for a vote later this week.
The amendment, proposed by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), would have required the federal government to obtain a warrant before executing data searches of U.S. communications. The measure includes exceptions for “imminent threats to life or bodily harm, consent searches, or known cybersecurity threat signatures.”
The narrow amendment vote came down to the wire on Friday, with members scrambling on the floor to ensure their votes were counted. The vote ultimately came to a 212-212 tie vote, failing to pass the lower chamber.
The warrant requirement has been at the center of the FISA reauthorization debate as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have disagreed on whether the measure should be adopted.
Some Republicans demanded to include some sort of restrictions for federal searches, accusing the FBI of misusing the tool to spy on select U.S. citizens. That demand became even more prominent on Wednesday when former President Donald Trump came out against the reauthorization of FISA, claiming it was misused to spy on his presidential campaign in 2020.
The amendment had mixed support from both Democrats and Republicans but failed to reach the majority threshold needed to pass, with several lawmakers arguing the measure would impede the federal government from thwarting criminal activity and interfere with national security efforts.
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The FISA legislation would extend the surveillance authority until 2026, a shorter time frame than the original five-year extension but a change Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) made to win over enough GOP support. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the Senate will work on the legislation immediately as soon as it arrives in the upper chamber.
“With less than a week to go before FISA authorities expire, time is a luxury the Senate does not have,” Schumer said Monday. “Republicans need to work with us in a bipartisan way to ensure this program with important implications for our national security does not lapse.”
