The chamber appeared poised to vote on passage of the modest
overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA,
after talks involving former President Donald Trump and nearly
20 of his hardline allies led House Speaker Mike Johnson to
shorten the length of the surveillance authority to two years
rather than five, according to multiple lawmakers.
But with Republicans holding a razor-thin 218-213 majority,
Johnson would need near unanimous support from his own
conference to pass the legislation and send it on to the Senate,
if House Democrats oppose it.
A version of the bill with a five-year term foundered in the
House on Wednesday after Democratic and Republican critics,
including Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, said it
gave the government too much power to spy on American citizens.
By Thursday, Republican leaders sounded upbeat about the
legislation's prospects.
"The two-year sunset has a lot of appeal to a lot of people,"
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters.
Trump had strongly opposed the legislation early in the week.
But his allies said the shorter two-year extension would allow
the former president to amend FISA rules later, if he wins the
White House in November.
"His opinion that the bill wasn't where it needed to be was
influential. And I think that his opinion that this is getting
closer to where it needs to be is helpful," said Representative
Chip Roy, a prominent hardliner involved in closed-door
negotiations.
The FISA law, enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, allows
the U.S. government to spy on foreigners without getting court
approval. The government is not allowed to target U.S. citizens.
But their communications may be inadvertently collected during
the process.
Trump has feuded with U.S. intelligence agencies since the FBI
investigated his 2016 presidential campaign for possible links
to Russian intelligence. The Department of Justice concluded in
2019 that Trump's campaign did not coordinate with Russia, but
also found that he ordered officials to obstruct the
investigation.
(Reporting by David Morgan; writing by Paul Grant; Editing by
Andy Sullivan, Chizu Nomiyama, Jonathan Oatis and David
Gregorio)
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