Arch-conservatives demand warrant requirement in bill to reauthorize government spy powers

The back-and-forth between warring House committees on how to revise the government’s spying powers could come to a head with a vote on a bill this week, as some conservatives warn that the legislation does not go far enough to protect Americans’ privacy. 

Arch-conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to include warrant requirements into the long-awaited legislation, which they say will narrow the scope of how the government spies on Americans. 

The lawmakers’ request comes as Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, has teed up a vote this week on the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act. 

That bill is the byproduct of a heated dispute between the House Judiciary and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on just how far-reaching reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act should go. Without action, the program would expire in April. 

The top issue has been FISA’s Section 702, which gives the government broad powers to collect massive amounts of electronic data that is parsed through for evidence of foreign plots and other dangers. 

Though Americans aren’t supposed to be targets, their electronic communications can be gathered and even searched without a warrant. 

“Simply put, anonymous bureaucrats have abused this tool that was intended for support to balance a threat to spy on American citizens,” said House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good, Virginia Republican.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to make sure that our government can’t keep spying on its citizens without a warrant.” 

Their argument is an extension of the dispute between the dueling committees, who drafted two different bills tackling FISA reform last year. 

The Judiciary Committee’s approach would have required that the government show probable cause before obtaining a warrant to search data that would identify Americans. 

The Intelligence Committee’s bill would raise the bar for searches, but stopped short of requiring a warrant. Supporters of the Intelligence Committee’s approach said requiring a warrant could undermine Section 702’s bite, and hamper law enforcement from doing its job. 

Rep. Warren Davidson, Ohio Republican, contended that if the Intelligence Committee got its way, the intelligence community would continue buying data to circumvent a warrant. 

“They’re not looking for foreigners, they’re looking for you,” Mr. Davidson said. “They will add new ways to do more spying. They’ll sprinkle in a little bit of reform and they will claim to have reformed FISA.”

The latest beef in the FISA battle comes after Mr. Johnson forced both committees to work together to produce legislation in January — he previously tried to have votes on both of the respective panels’ bills in December, but punted the votes after backlash from both sides. 

Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, said that a “U-shaped coalition” of populist conservatives and liberals were aligned on adding more-stringent warrant requirements to FISA, and hoped that Mr. Johnson would not make the same decision again. 

“Our plea to Speaker Johnson is not to just continue to punt on FISA, that’s what we did previously,” Mr. Gaetz said. “And it’s unacceptable. It’s no fun watching the team who’s best play is to punt.”