Spy bill set to expire without last-minute deal in Congress
Three provisions in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will expire this week unless Congress can agree on a last-minute deal to extend them, at least temporarily. President Trump, Democrats, and Republicans are all unhappy with the counterintelligence and foreign surveillance law known as FISA, but for different reasons. Their competing complaints have made large-scale reform very difficult and, with time running out, a short-term extension is looking more likely. Trump told Republicans last week he won’t sign a bill that simply extends the law without changes. Trump believes the law was abused by the FBI to spy on his 2016 campaign and to launch improperly a two-year investigation into allegations he colluded with the Russians to win the White House.
The president “made it abundantly clear that he will NOT accept a clean reauthorization … without significant FISA reform!” Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and a staunch FISA opponent who met with the president, tweeted. “I agree with him!” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat and a former top member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she did not intend to let the FISA provisions expire. “We have to have a reauthorization of FISA,” Pelosi told reporters before House lawmakers left for the weekend. “We're having our own negotiations within our own group, but also among the Democrats and vis-a-vis the Republicans.”
Democrats are seeking changes to protect civil liberties and prevent abuse of the surveillance measures, which have grown increasingly unpopular in the past decade. Democrats are seeking changes to protect civil liberties and prevent abuse of the surveillance measures, which have grown increasingly unpopular in the past decade. Reforms to the FISA program will likely include ending the Call Details Record Program, which permits the government to seek call metadata from telecommunications companies, and new provisions to enable better oversight of the secretive program. The National Security Agency suspended the Call Details Record Program last year, but privacy advocates and many in Congress in both parties want to eliminate it in the law so that it cannot be restarted.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat and a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, is seeking additional changes that she said would close loopholes and strengthen oversight of the law. Lofgren also authored a FISA reform bill and is seeking House consideration of the measure. “The bill pulls the intelligence programs in the direction of compliance with our Constitution,” Lofgren said in a letter to Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, last week. Lofgren helped block a House bill from passing the Judiciary Committee last month, leading to the current negotiations for greater reforms.
Republicans want changes to the law to address abuses outlined in a December report produced by Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who found "17 significant errors or omissions" by law enforcement seeking to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. “I would like to see us get to a point where we can find some compromise, find some reforms,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said. “I believe that we can get there.” Attorney General William Barr, meanwhile, wants a “clean” extension of the law with no new changes. He pledged to Republicans last month to make internal changes to address the problems discovered by Horowitz. House and Senate lawmakers have not scheduled consideration of a FISA reauthorization next week despite the looming deadline. The Senate will be considering a major energy bill while the House plans to take up a Senate-passed measure limiting President Trump’s ability to use military force against Iran.
A vote on FISA is tentative, House leaders said. "Conversations are ongoing," Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said, before adjourning the House on Thursday.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/spy-bill-set-to-expire-without-last-minute-deal-in-congress