House passes Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
- FISA set to expire April 19; Section 702 of the law under scrutiny
- 19 GOP lawmakers blocked legislation from advancing Wednesday
- FBI director: Losing FISA increases risk of terrorist attack targeting US
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WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — House Republicans passed legislation renewing crucial national security surveillance legislation on Friday — a week before it was set to expire.
The vote happened even after 19 Republicans joined Democrats on Wednesday in voting against a rule for legislation to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, blocking the measure from advancing in a 228-193 vote. Section 702 authorizes warrantless surveillance of foreign persons located abroad. NewsNation partner The Hill notes that people had concerns, though, about the government also picking up communications from Americans interacting with those being spied on.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has been trying to convince conservative critics to support the reauthorization legislation for months. He was finally able to do so after an agreement was made to extend Section 702 for two years instead of five.
An amendment to the larger FISA bill sponsored by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., that would require a warrant for any U.S. agency surveilling Americans did not pass after a tie vote of 212-212 on Friday.
The passage of FISA with a 273-147 vote comes amid FBI warnings about the heightened threat of an ISIS attack on U.S. soil. It still has to clear the Senate, though.
There’s an April 19 deadline to get FISA reauthorized.
FBI Director Christopher Wray warned this week that losing FISA would increase the likelihood of a successful terrorist attack targeting America.
Wray said any potential attack could look similar to the one that killed nearly 150 people at a Russian concert hall last month. The attack was carried out by ISIS-K, a group formed in Afghanistan known for more extreme brutality than other ISIS groups.
In the United States, an 18-year-old was arrested one day before he allegedly planned to attack Idaho churches in the name of ISIS, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
NewsNation was the first to report that the Department of Homeland Security arrested four suspected terrorists who entered the U.S. and were identified after already being in the country. All of them spent a significant amount of time in the U.S. — one of them a full year — before being taken into custody.
NewsNation’s Sean Noone and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
