Trump · Wired
Republican Mutiny Sinks Trump's Push to Extend Warrantless Surveillance
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House Speaker Mike Johnson convened a vote in the dead of night on Friday, calling lawmakers back to the floor after midnight in a push to preserve a surveillance program that allows federal agents to read the communications of Americans without a warrant.
Key facts
- The FBI has used Section 702 data to run warrantless queries on a US senator, 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign, Black Lives Matter protesters, and both sides of the January 6 Capitol attack
- The final blow came after 2 am, when the 20 Republicans voted again to block the original version of the bill, which seeks a shorter 18-month extension
- Those 20 votes were drawn almost entirely from the House Freedom Caucus and the party's libertarian wing, including Andy Harris of Maryland, the caucus chair; Thomas Massie of Kentucky; Chip Roy
- Shortly after 1 am ET, a dozen Republicans joined nearly every Democrat to kill a leadership-backed amendment that would have extended Section 702 for five more years
Summary
The failed vote caps weeks of bipartisan resistance to a clean reauthorization of the surveillance program, authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The 702 program permits wiretaps of communications ostensibly belonging to foreigners overseas, but is also known to intercept vast amounts of Americans’ emails, texts, phone calls, and other data—private messages that the FBI and other agencies routinely access without a warrant. A handful of Democrats led by Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, have joined the White House in lobbying against new restrictions.