The House of Representatives on Thursday approved convening conference committee negotiations with the Senate in hopes of reaching a deal on a controversial bill that would reauthorize government surveillance powers.
In a 284-122 vote, the House created a five-member committee to work with the Senate.
The Democrats on the committee are the chairs of the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, Reps. Jerrold Nadler of New York and Adam Schiff of California along with Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, who has pushed for stronger FISA reforms.
Republicans comprising the committee are Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Devin Nunes of California, the ranking members of the House Oversight and Intelligence Committees, respectively.
A conference committee is convened on a temporary basis when lawmakers cannot agree on different House and Senate proposals. Committee members are appointed by party leadership with the goal of negotiating a proposal that both chambers can support.
The conference committee vote came after House Democrats twice withdrew a bill to reauthorize three key provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Democratic leadership pulled the bill after Republicans and civil liberties advocates on the left united to oppose it. Republican opposition galvanized after President Trump threatened a veto.
On Thursday, Democrats blamed Mr. Trump for blowing up the bipartisan support for the measure. Earlier this year 126 Republicans joined 152 Democrats to send the bill to the Senate.
“The Republicans abandoned this bipartisan project for one reason and one reason only — the president tweeted on a whim and told them to oppose this bill,” said Mr. Nadler on the House floor.
“I refuse to let let this die simply because the Republicans refused to stand up to the president’s whims,” the New York Democrat continued. “What changed other than the president’s tweets?”
Mr. Trump and his allies have fumed about the legislation because the FISA program was used by the FBI to monitor former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Since the House vote in March, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz found the FBI repeatedly bungled surveillance warrants submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court to monitor American citizens.
Mr. Jordan said the inspector general reports led to the Republican revolt.
“Everything has changed,” he said. “The main change is, its worse than we thought. From March 10 when this body last dealt with the FISA legislation all kinds of things have changed.”
Mr. Jordan said Congress should “hit the pause button” of FISA reform until investigations into the FBI’s bungling of the program are complete.
The committee vote comes after House Democrats Thursday morning withdrew the bill that would reauthorize the three provisions.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, initially announced a vote would take place Thursday and then reversed course and announced the measure would be tweeted.
A vote was scheduled Wednesday, but Democratic leaders scrapped the plan late the evening after it was clear there wasn’t enough broad support to pass the measure.
Civil liberties groups said the bill didn’t go far enough to protect Americans from government overreach. They called for stronger reforms before the House reconsiders the measure.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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