Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has rolled out a new proposal to reauthorize a major U.S. intelligence authority after two earlier attempts failed. His bill, released Thursday, remains largely the same as the measure that was rejected in a series of votes earlier this month.
The provision at the center of the fight, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is scheduled to expire April 30. Section 702 permits U.S. intelligence agencies to intercept electronic communications of foreign nationals located abroad. Some of the roughly 350,000 foreign targets whose communications are collected under the law communicate with Americans, and those interactions can result in Americans’ calls, texts and emails being captured and available to federal officials.
For almost two decades, lawmakers concerned about privacy have pushed to require a court-approved warrant before federal agents can conduct a targeted search of an American’s information captured under Section 702. The absence of any such warrant requirement helped defeat efforts last week to extend the program for 18 months and to renew it for five years.
Administration officials, as in prior administrations, contend that imposing a warrant requirement would hinder law enforcement and jeopardize national security. Johnson’s latest plan would reauthorize Section 702 for three years but does not add a warrant mandate. Instead, it would require the FBI to provide monthly explanations to an oversight official when it reviews Americans’ communications and would impose criminal penalties for willful abuses, along with other procedural changes.
Former NSA general counsel Glenn Gerstell said the proposal looks like an attempt to strike a middle ground. He characterized the bill as offering limited substantive statutory changes while making “gestures” to privacy concerns, calling it a reasonable compromise likely acceptable to national security agencies and somewhat reassuring to civil liberties advocates.
Privacy proponents were less persuaded. Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice called the measure “a straight reauthorization” dressed up with pages of changes that, in her view, do not meaningfully alter how the program operates.
Democrats and some Republicans have discussed a bipartisan reform path, but a deal has not materialized. Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said leaders were negotiating an inclusive process and that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had been in contact with Johnson. Himes said he and Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, were working on a proposal intended to preserve and reform the program for bipartisan reauthorization.
Raskin, however, circulated a memo urging colleagues to oppose Johnson’s bill, arguing it “continues the disastrous policy of trusting the FBI to self-police and self-report its abuses of Section 702 and backdoor searches of Americans’ data.” He warned that FBI agents would still be able to collect, search and review Americans’ communications without prior judicial review.
Current FBI rules require annual FISA training for agents and generally prohibit searches aimed at investigating ordinary criminal activity without supervisory or legal approval; searches intended to obtain foreign intelligence are treated differently.
Some conservative opponents remain skeptical as well. Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, a former Freedom Caucus chair who helped sink Johnson’s earlier reauthorization attempt, posted that “we’re not there yet,” arguing the intelligence community must be held accountable when it improperly surveils Americans.
The House Rules Committee is set to meet Monday morning, the first step toward moving Johnson’s renewal bill to the House floor.