Speaker Johnson's scuttled key spy powers reform infuriates conservatives

In light of Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) stance on deep state surveillance reform, numerous conservatives hold the House leader responsible for obstructing changes to contentious monitoring laws.

The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA) is set to be considered this week by the House of Representatives. Its purpose is to amend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), as Breitbart News reported.

Section 702 is a contentious statute that aims to target foreign enemies but frequently violates the Constitution by surveilling Americans' private communications without a warrant.

Despite privacy groups' requests for a number of amendments, including an amendment to prevent intelligence and law enforcement agencies from buying Americans' communications through third-party data brokers, the House is moving closer to enacting this bill without these changes.

Lawmakers' Take

The matter may never make it past the upper body of Congress since Johnson wants the data broker issue treated as its own bill.

“It’s disappointing to watch Speaker Johnson, who was a strong defender of essentially the same bills … when he was a member of the Judiciary Committee, now as speaker essentially has crossed all the way over to the intel point of view,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), sponsor of the First Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, said.

“They essentially want to concede that, ‘Okay, we allowed the debate to happen — but we are working very aggressively to make sure it doesn’t become law,” Davidson added.

House members will be briefed on FISA on Wednesday by the Biden administration and deep state officials from the CIA, FBI, and other intelligence agencies.

Davidson claimed that Johnson's actions had gradually benefited the intelligence committees, putting at risk the dreams of privacy advocates who sought to use Section 702 to need a warrant before surveilling the communications of Americans.

“It seems the speaker has a plan to tank that as well,” Davidson remarked, speaking of the warrant amendment.

He added, “What it’s designed to do is to kill the entire reform effort.”

“[Mike] Turner fully sabotaged everything, so he must feel pretty happy,” Davidson continued.

Expert Testimony

Noah Chauvin and Elizabeth Goitein, two Brennan Center for Justice experts, explained that a significant portion of RISAA is identical to the bill proposed by the Intelligence Committee:

"RISAA reflects points on which HJC and HPSCI Republicans could agree. The vast majority of the text is copied directly from HPSCI’s bill, which would be broadly ineffective at preventing abuses.

Even where the provisions would be marginally helpful, they are in almost every case substantially weaker than analogous provisions in the Protect Liberty Act or the GSRA. For instance, RISAA requires FBI agents applying for FISC orders to notify government attorneys of any exculpatory information, while the Protect Liberty Act and the GSRA require that the FISC be notified as well."