House GOP members on the Intelligence Committee reportedly threatened a mutiny if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) went forward with holding a vote on renewing a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act this week.
Raj Shah, Johnson’s spokesman, announced on X on Wednesday afternoon that the House would not consider the bill that would revise Section 702 of FISA, which lets the government essentially use surveillance on foreign nationals outside the country without needing a warrant to do so, even if the party on the other side of communications is on American soil. The tool has been credited with preventing national security threats but criticized for spying on U.S. citizens.
“In order to allow Congress more time to reach consensus on how best to reform FISA and Section 702 while maintaining the integrity of our critical national security programs, the House will consider the reform and reauthorization bill at a later date,” Shah said.
While his message presented the idea of a united Republican front on this matter, sources told Fox News that the decision was anything but. While the House Rules Committee was going through the legislation, the sources claimed many members of the House Intelligence Committee threatened to tank a procedural vote that would effectively kill the bill.
“Instead of playing the game through Rules and regular order, Intel decided to take their ball and go home, walking away from the negotiated text and amendment plan without any understanding of why,” one source said.
The bill, which is a monthslong product of work between Judiciary and Intelligence committee members, was expected to hit the House floor this week for a full vote. Seven lawmakers were assigned to hash out a compromise on reforms for Section 702.
Judiciary and Intelligence members differed on what kind of changes they wanted to see to FISA. Judiciary members argued FISA was being abused to spy on U.S. citizens and sought severe restrictions on the bill, while Intelligence members argued the severe restrictions would hinder the federal government’s ability to prevent terrorist attacks.
Other sources told Fox News that the bill text was changed over the weekend to include an amendment from Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), a member of the Freedom Caucus who does not sit on the Rules or Intelligence committees. One source said Davidson’s amendment was ineligible for consideration because it was not deemed relevant, but the language was updated during the weekend.
“Someone in leadership staff ended up drafting text that got inserted into the base text over the weekend, so they basically airdropped … this one paragraph into the base text that now makes that amendment germane,” the source told Fox News. “The amendment totally screws FISA, the text that was added totally screws FISA in terms of its ability to be a national security tool.”
Davidson’s proposed amendment would have forced federal officers acting within FISA to seek a warrant before trying to obtain third-party-owned communications and location data of a U.S. citizen.
“This was airdropped in there,” a second source close to the Intelligence Committee said, referring to Davidson’s altered amendment text. “This was not something that the seven members of the working group had ever digested, ever looked at. So, really, it was disingenuous to think that that would be a part of that. And essentially, [House GOP leadership] agreed.”
It is not clear when the bill revising Section 702 will be brought back to the floor. However, Republicans have until April 19 to continue negotiations before FISA expires — an extension Johnson placed in the National Defense Authorization Act last year to buy time for more negotiations, much to the displeasure of hard-line Republicans.
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Many GOP members have already threatened to withhold their support unless important changes are made.
“From my standpoint, unless there’s significant reform — and I mean significant reform,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) said Tuesday. “Then you can count on me for a no vote.”