Speaker Mike Johnson, whose fortune took a turn for the better recently, saw the House on Friday advancing a measure that upholds the national security system despite some narrow escapes and many times getting into difficulty.
However, it would be hard to deny the importance of the earlier event when the Senate had approved an amendment debating the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – a measure Johnson had been bothered with for a long time due to the opposition of his party from the hard-line movement. We didn’t have any of 5 House Republicans headed for absence, but any didn’t stay against it! – an amazing shift from Wednesday’s vote which the failure occurred 228-192, and any full 19 members of the GOP remained contrary.
When it was the director’s turn to submit, the lower chamber had 273-147 votes to renew the warrant authority. The Senate is forecasting next week to perform that act before April 19 while expiration deadline is up. Passage was not without some drama: Another Republican congress women from Florida, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who watched the bill previously, reversed her standpoint and filed a motion to reconsider it. Even before the majority of the Members of the House can assemble for a voting debate, the Speaker is bound to submit a motion to postpone the debate, which is in line with the house proper parliamentary procedure. The Republican leadership has the confidence that what fp voted for, will table Luna’s motion.
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The success marks a much-needed win for Johnson after he personally advocated for the bill Wednesday – only to see his own members cast the decisive votes against bringing it to the floor. Despite many members of his party expressing skepticism regarding the tool before, defections grew exponentially following a social media post from former President Donald Trump opposing it.
The House Rules Committee convened Thursday evening to vote 8-4 to bring the bill to the floor Friday morning for debate after Johnson worked to revise some of its provisions to win support from holdouts in his party. The revised bill text, which among other things includes a two-year reauthorization of the tool instead of five, was released shortly before the vote.
In the wake of Wednesday’s failed vote, Johnson and House GOP leadership scrambled to get back to the drawing board for a fourth attempt to reach an agreement. The prospects looked dire when a caucus meeting shortly after the vote was said to have devolved into chaos and screaming.
That led some in the GOP to openly express doubt in Johnson’s ability to reach a consensus. But meetings with party members, a scheduled press conference with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and a direct appeal to a hard-line member may have proven successful.
By Thursday night, two Republicans – Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida – flipped to yes. Five others – Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas and Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania – said they were warming to the bill.
The effort to reauthorize Section 702 has been months in the making. The White House began lobbying for its renewal in late 2023, and in February it requested a court renew it.
White House national security communications adviser John Kirby welcomed the news Friday, saying, “We support a lot of the reforms that are being considered. It’s critical for all threats, not just any particular one threat.”
“And it, of course, is definitely a must-have for us since we strongly believe it will serve to protect our country and defend our people. Therefore, we would like to see its further extension but its movement towards strengthening as well.”
The law is called “unconstitutional” by some of the human rights groups and the American Civil Liberties Union, and it allows the intelligence community of the United States to collect unlimited information about people who are not citizens of the United States, not located in it, but are deemed as national security threat.
The White House climate plan acted as a trigger for house Republicans who were torn apart over it. Many of the party representatives have doubts regarding the performance of the FBI, which at first time investigated a possible link between the 2016 Trump Campaign and the Russian government. A lot of them too were demanding for the PM’s powers to be checked.
If a vote is successful and combined with the party’s unanimity on the resolution Johnson may continue to shoulder some influence and counter an ouster vote by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene among other threats. During the recent election, the current Georgia Republican said that the FISA (or Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) vote is one of a few matters that she is paying attention to before she commits to the procedure of deposing Johnson as the speaker.
On this meeting, Johnson offered Greene the chance to seat in his proposed kitchen cabinet to within a group of advisers. But Green hesitated and was ready to observe other issues.
Seemingly his day can’t become less eventful, Johnson is supposed to show at Mar-a-Lago shortly after the ballot for the meeting with Mr. Trump that will be mostly devoted to “election integrity” – an appearance that can help this senator to win respect of skeptical Republicans.
