Reporter's Notebook: House chaos sparks emergency FISA extension
"Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today," said Ben Franklin.If sloganeering was left to Congress, the motto might read, "Never do today what you can leave till...
By Fox News · Fox News
"Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today," said Ben Franklin. If sloganeering was left to Congress, the motto might read, "Never do today what you can leave till tomorrow." That is emblematic of the recent scramble on Capitol Hill to renew the key terrorism prevention program known as FISA Section 702. Congress faced a deadline to re-up the program before 11:59:59 p.m. ET on April 20. Lawmakers fretted that it was risky to let the program expire. They worried that the U.S. may be vulnerable to a terrorist attack because of the war with Iran. President Donald Trump insisted that Republicans "UNIFY, and vote together" to pass an 18-month extension of FISA without any add-ons. The president argued that the FISA program was among "the reasons we have had such tremendous SUCCESS on the battlefield." So the House GOP brass planned to pass the 18-month FISA reauthorization last Wednesday. But it’s about the math. An eclectic alliance of Democrats and Republicans both supported and opposed the bill. Either way, the measure lacked the votes to pass. "The coalitions around FISA have traditionally been kind of scrambled," said Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Calif. So despite the promise of a late-night vote Wednesday, the House GOP brain trust punted until Thursday as they scrambled to find the votes and prevent FISA from going offline. "FISA will not go dark. We have a little slight delay. We're working through and building consensus as we do on all difficult issues, and we'll get there. We'll get it done," promised House Speaker Mike Johnson , R-La. CONSERVATIVE FISA REVOLT POSES FRESH TEST FOR SPEAKER JOHNSON Some Republicans balked at the 18-month extension. "I want warrants to surveil American citizens. And the Fourth Amendment is not for sale. I don't want our federal government buying data from private companies on American citizens," said Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. FISA is designed to reap foreign intelligence data, but it sometimes vacuums up the telephone commu…