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<\/p>\nJohnson touts\u00a0\u2018bipartisan\u2019 path for FISA reauthorization, but obstacles remain<\/p>\n
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A top Democrat says he isn\u2019t participating in conversations with Republican leaders at this time.<\/p>\n
Speaker Mike Johnson is raising the possibility of a \u201cbipartisan\u201d path forward on extending a key spy authority after negotiations among House Republicans blew up late last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re confident that we\u2019ll be able to find strong bipartisan consensus that builds off of the really meaningful reforms that we included in the legislation the last time we reauthorized it,\u201d Johnson said during a news conference Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
The emergency short-term reauthorization Congress cleared last week expires April 30, putting pressure on lawmakers to reach a deal quickly.<\/p>\n
Among the options GOP leaders are discussing: If the Senate can advance a three-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with policy changes, the House could then pass it with a majority of Republicans and some Democrats, according to three people granted anonymity to share direct knowledge of ongoing conversations.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s also possible Johnson could put that measure on the House floor under an expedited procedure that does not require prior adoption of a party-line rule, but would need a two-thirds majority voting in the affirmative to secure passage. House GOP leaders still need to appease hard-liners who have very specific demands for new guardrails on warrentless surveillance practices as part of any reauthorization measure.<\/p>\n
House Democratic leaders, meanwhile, aren\u2019t promising cooperation \u2014 and they\u2019re skeptical Johnson is as close to a deal as he might suggest.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis confidence meter was always pretty high, and then he put a bill on the floor that had zero consensus among his caucus, and looked like the disaster that it was after midnight,\u201d House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California told reporters Tuesday.<\/p>\n
He added that he has not had \u201cany discussions\u201d yet with Republican counterparts on next steps for Section 702, and \u201cabsent those conversations, it\u2019s going to be hard to find bipartisan consensus.\u201d Aguilar also said that Democrats would follow the leads of House Intelligence Chair Jim Himes of Connecticut and Jamie Raskin of Maryland.<\/p>\n
Johnson is planning to meet Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Darin LaHood of Illinois later Tuesday as the pair of Republicans works with Democrats on a bipartisan FISA extension plan, according to two people granted anonymity to share private scheduling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Johnson touts\u00a0\u2018bipartisan\u2019 path for FISA reauthorization, but obstacles remain A top Democrat says he isn\u2019t participating in conversations with Republican leaders at this time. Speaker Mike Johnson is raising the….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n