If you give them an inch, they may take a mile.
And if you give Congress a deadline, theyll probably take 13 days. Or perhaps 45.
Congress recently struggled to reauthorize the nations most effective, and arguably most controversial, spying program. After much division, lawmakers only renewed Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for 45 days. That was after a 13-day Band-Aid was applied last month.
This infighting produced a buzzer beater on Capitol Hill.
Congress knew for months that Section 702 of FISA would expire in mid-April. But after yanking renewal for the program from the House schedule earlier this year â then stumbling through two failed proposals to reauthorize the program in the House, Congress re-upped FISA for a scant 13 days. That deadline bore down on lawmakers last week, with FISA programs expected to lose their congressional blessing in the wee hours of Friday, May 1.
“These are some of the most complicated public policy matters that Congress deals with. And they are all sandwiched together because of the deadlines that are upon us,” observed House Speaker , R-La. “There’s still some negotiation, deliberation and consternation.”Â
With the 13-day program patch on the precipice of expiration, planned to pass a three-year extension â but the bill included a provision to also bar the potential creation of a “digital currency” by the Federal Reserve. Such a crypto mechanism isnt in the offing right now, and it has nothing to do with FISA directly. But libertarian lawmakers fear that the government could track the financial transactions of Americans if the Fed initiated a digital financial asset.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the upper chamber would reject any bill that included the digital currency provision.
Even so, Johnson forged ahead with the FISA reauthorization featuring the digital currency ban.Â
“The Senate knows exactly what we’re doing,” said Johnson when asked if it was responsible to load up the FISA bill with the digital asset language, despite the admonition from Thune with FISA Section 702 on the verge of collapsing within hours.
“I speak with Leader Thune all the time. They’re watching this very closely. And hopefully they can process what we send them.”
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, was one of the biggest advocates of outlawing the establishment of a digital currency by the Fed. Yours truly pressed him on why that provision had to ride on the FISA bill.
“Government monitoring of the people,” responded Roy. “(People) don’t want to have surveillance in their cars. They don’t want their currency tracked or blocked. And they don’t want the government looking at their correspondence and their emails. They all think it’s the same stupid crap. But the government is looking at all of our stuff.”
Which brings us to the essence of FISA.
Libertarian lawmakers believe FISA Section 702 is too intrusive, sweeping up practically every electronic communication imaginable. It doesnt tell the government what is said in those communiques, but it does document who is sending what to whom.
In fact, President Trump formerly opposed reauthorizing FISA.
Some object to reauthorizing FISA because of the involving Trump and the 2016 election. However, the surveillance authorized in that inquiry was related to Title 1 of FISA and entailed customary court orders, not special information gathering as authorized by Section 702.
FISA Section 702 does not require a warrant. And lawmakers from both sides of the aisle argue that allowing the government to vacuum up prodigious amounts of information about people without a warrant violates the Constitutions 4th Amendment protection against “unreasonable searches and seizures.”
“There were some people that were holding out for a warrant. And I think they realized that probably was not a tenable position,” said House Intelligence Committee Chai
