US House tees up surveillance law for overnight passage after two-hour vote

By David Morgan, Raphael Satter and AJ Vicens

WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) – The effort to renew the U.S. government’s warrantless domestic surveillance powers took a step forward on Wednesday, after House ​Speaker Mike Johnson and Trump administration officials persuaded Republican ‌holdouts to support a measure to open debate on the bill.

After a more than two-hour vote in which Republican leaders pressured several holdouts to switch from “no” to “yes,” the measure to open debate on the surveillance authority passed the House 216 ‌to ​210, part of a rule that would ⁠also open debate on funding ⁠for immigration enforcement operations and farm legislation.

Passage of the rule means the renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will be presented to lawmakers without it containing any requirement for U.S. law ​enforcement to seek judicial approval before rifling through American communications data intercepted by the country’s spy agencies. Some holdouts had demanded ⁠that condition before they supported the measure.

Johnson ⁠said he wanted to rush the bill through the ​House.

“We’ll move forward on FISA reauthorization. We’ll do that first,” Johnson told ​reporters after the vote. “We can still get it done ‌tonight. The schedule’s been pushed back.”

FISA’s reauthorization – which would last three years – must receive House and Senate approval before it becomes law. The situation remains fluid, said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center ⁠for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program.

“It’s rare for members to cross party lines on a rule vote, so the fact that the rule ⁠passed is not a ‌strong indicator of what the vote will be ⁠on the underlying bill,” she said in an ​email.

President ‌Donald Trump, once a FISA critic and now a ​powerful advocate, ⁠is pressuring lawmakers to endorse it. The president dispatched officials to the floor on Wednesday as part of a successful bid to sway some holdouts, according to Republican Representative Tim Burchett, who called FISA “a nightmare.”

He initially voted against the rule before flipping to a “yes.”

(Reporting by Raphael SatterEditing ​by Rod Nickel)