Lawmakers on the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees faced off over an overhaul of the government’s top spying tool on Tuesday ahead of the House’s expected vote on it this week.
The fight centered on adding a warrant requirement to the bill that would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the government to collect troves of data — emails, texts and phone calls — from foreigners living abroad and Americans’ communications sometimes get scooped up too.
“The single most important reforms we can enact to combat these [FBI] abuses is a probable cause warrant requirement for U.S. person queries,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, who joined privacy hawks and GOP lawmakers outraged by FBI spying.
“I want to make a few things clear,” Rep. Mike Turner, Ohio Republican, responded. “There are no warrantless searches of American citizens’ data. That does not occur under FISA. It’s not permissible under FISA. It’s illegal.”
The House is expected to vote this week to reauthorize the spying power for another five years, but the fight over warrant requirements will likely continue on the House floor. If not reauthorized, FISA powers will expire on April 19.
The reauthorization bill contains 56 changes to the law establishing new procedures to rein in the FBI, increase accountability at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and impose penalties for wrongdoing.
The bill received a boost of support when it became known that House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, would vote against an amendment for a warrant requirement when agencies search for Americans’ data in the FISA database.
Privacy hawks and national security hawks on both sides of the aisle have fought over adding a warrant requirement to further protect Americans’ data that is inadvertently picked up when they communicate with a foreign target.
“If the warrant requirement was part of the legislation, it essentially eviscerates 702. So, if we want to get rid of 702, that’s a way to do it,” Rep. Darin LaHood, an Illinois Republican on the Intelligence Committee.
FISA has been controversial since its launch in 2007, and Congress mandated it to be renewed about every five years to force scrutiny of the program.
This time, the debate was shaped by the FBI’s use of FISA to target the Trump campaign in 2016.
Former special counsel John Durham last year concluded in his report that the FBI should not have launched its “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into the purported ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.
Mr. LaHood said the changes in the bill will help hold the FBI accountable, including six new criminal statutes for abusing FISA.
“If this happened again with Crossfire Hurricane, I would predict there’d be four to five people within the FBI personnel that would be indicted by now,” he said.
That wasn’t enough for some GOP lawmakers
Mr. Jordan of Ohio was among the Republicans venting their displeasure with the bill.
“They spied on President Trump’s campaign in 2016. They wrote the Hunter Biden laptop letter,” Mr. Jordan said. “And now, they oppose the FBI having to get a warrant before they can search Americans’ data.”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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