Patrick G. Eddington
In late April 2024, the Congress passed and President Biden signed the most sweeping expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in nearly 20 years. In response to stinging criticism over the law’s increased scope—which even some former Justice Department officials denounced—Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D‑VA) promised that a fix to eliminate the over-broad language in the revised FISA statute would be included in the annual Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA).
But as WIRED reported in July, pro-surveillance hawks in the Senate conducted a behind-the-scenes campaign to scuttle Warner’s FISA reform effort. As we learned over the weekend, the “Congressional Surveillance Caucus” (my term) prevailed in their fight with Warner.
On Pearl Harbor Day, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees (HASC and SASC) released their “compromise” version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which this year includes the IAA sans any reform of the radically broad FISA expansion that became law earlier this year.
Because this particular NDAA contains some “culture war” related provisions, it’s unclear at the moment whether the House GOP leadership can get the bill passed via the suspension calendar (which requires a bill to get two-thirds of House members voting in support for passage). If not, the bill could be brought up under regular order under a rule which only requires a simple majority for passage.
Given that HASC and SASC appear to be treating this as a de facto conference report, it’s unlikely the House GOP leadership would allow amendments to the bill under any rule governing floor debate. The bottom line is that if the bill eventually passes as is, the next chance to roll back the expanded FISA statute will be 2025 when the next NDAA and IAA are up for consideration … and you can count on the “Congressional Surveillance Caucus” to fight any reform efforts tooth and nail.