Mike Johnson withdraws both House FISA bills

House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled both pieces of competing legislation to overhaul the federal government’s chief spy power under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Mr.  Johnson, Louisiana Republican, decided that neither bill, one from the House Judiciary Committee and the other from the House intelligence committee, would get a vote on the floor this week after members of both committees locked horns during a GOP conference meeting Monday night.

Initially, both bills were expected to be brought to the floor on Tuesday and lawmakers would vote on both, and whichever piece of legislation received the most votes would be sent to the upper chamber, a legislative procedure known as a “queen of the hill” vote.

However, the conference meeting took a turn for the worse according to one GOP source who confirmed that Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio, a supporter of the Judiciary bill, accused Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner of Ohio of “f***ing lying” about the Judiciary bill.

Mr. Turner earlier criticized the Judiciary’s FISA legislation, saying it “spends more time expanding the constitutional rights of foreigners who travel in and out of the United States. It creates civil liability for telecommunications companies that work with our intelligence community voluntarily.”

He also said the Judiciary bill provides immunity from prosecution for some “horrific crimes” if they’re discovered using section 702 foreign intelligence-collection powers.

GOP lawmakers became frustrated with the idea of bringing two bills to the floor to compete under the “queen of the hill” setting, and two Republican members of the Rules Committee were ready to vote against bringing the procedure to the floor.

Several members, including former Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California, suggested to Mr. Johnson to select one bill and stay with it.

Mr. McCarthy urged him, one lawmaker said, to have both committees work out their differences to create one bill, a process similar to how the Republicans’ H.R. 2 Secure Border Act was crafted.

The bills are now expected to be kicked to next year, which could give the panels the time to work on one bill.  

The Judiciary Committee’s bill has far more stringent rules for federal officials to query the FISA database when intercepting communications of foreigners abroad and demands that federal officials have warrants to search the database.

However, the intelligence panel bill would provide that Section 702 is only used for foreign intelligence by prohibiting the FBI from conducting “evidence of a crime only” queries.

The House is scheduled to vote on the National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday, which includes a short-term extension of FISA until April 19.

Section 702 of FISA authorizes U.S. spy agencies to intercept communications of foreigners abroad, though Americans can be ensnared in the surveillance when communicating with foreigners.

Critics of Section 702 say the spying tool threatens constitutional rights when FBI or U.S. intelligence officials sift through the data without a warrant looking for dirt on Americans.