Why Is Speaker Mike Johnson Trying to Ram Through Section 702 Without Allowing Members to Vote on Reforms?

Speaker Mike Johnson. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

​Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was enacted to enable the surveillance of foreign threats on foreign soil. By 2021, however, when The Wall Street Journal reported that this supposedly “foreign” surveillance authority had been used to search Americans’ communications as many as 3.4 million times, it was clear that Section 702 had evolved into a tool that could permit domestic spying operations.
 
That is why Congress, in 2024, insisted on a two-year reauthorization window rather than a longer extension. The goal was to allow for closer oversight of how intelligence agencies use – and sometimes misuse – this authority. In previous reauthorization debates, House leadership permitted Members to vote on reform amendments. Speaker Mike Johnson himself did so in 2024.
 
When Congress returns next week, however, Speaker Johnson reportedly intends to continue relying on restrictive procedural rules rather than an open amendment process.
 
After losing two floor votes, Speaker Johnson appears poised to make a third attempt to reauthorize Section 702 without allowing Members to propose, debate, and vote on reform amendments. Consider the many ways in which the handling of this legislation departs from normal practice:
 

• Despite strong bipartisan support for reforms – including a warrant requirement before the government searches Americans’ communications and restrictions on government purchases of Americans’ personal digital data – House leadership has used special procedural rules to tightly control which amendments may receive floor consideration. Leadership reportedly has even considered, and may still be considering, reauthorizing Section 702 under suspension of the rules, a procedure that requires a two-thirds vote while sharply limiting debate and opportunities for amendments.

 

• The House Rules Committee, apparently at the direction of leadership, has repeatedly rejected reform amendments, including proposals requiring warrants for searches of Americans’ data. These actions represent significant departures from regular order, under which Members are generally free to offer germane amendments to major legislation.

 

• House leadership continues to pursue either a “clean” reauthorization or proposals advertised as reforms that largely restate existing law. Such measures leave untouched the central concern raised by reform advocates: warrantless government access to Americans’ communications.

 

• While sidelining surveillance reforms, House leadership has attached a ban on a Federal Reserve central bank digital currency (CBDC) to the reauthorization package. PPSA has endorsed legislation to prohibit a CBDC. But a CBDC ban does nothing to reform Section 702. Moreover, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has reportedly declared the provision “dead on arrival” in the Senate. Including this moribund proposal in the package seems disingenuous.

 

• House leadership has repeatedly scheduled votes near expiration deadlines, leaving reform advocates little time to organize support. Debate has at times stretched late into the night, literally exhausting debate and creating pressure to act quickly rather than deliberate carefully.

 

• Instead of resolving substantive disagreements, leadership has relied on a series of short-term extensions – first 10 days, then 45 days. This “rolling cliff” strategy creates artificial urgency and reduces opportunities for thoughtful analysis and debate.

 
All of this is occurring while the Trump administration continues to withhold a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinion that reportedly details ongoing compliance failures and violations of laws and procedures intended to protect Americans’ constitutional rights.
 
We have to ask: Why is Speaker Johnson carrying such a heavy burden for the intelligence community? And why is President Trump – who was himself the target of surveillance abuse under a related FISA authority – allowing intelligence agencies to demand reauthorization without any meaningful reforms?
 
Before Congress reconvenes, President Trump and Speaker Johnson should consider a more constructive path. This would be one that permits open debate, allows votes on bipartisan reforms, and restores public confidence that surveillance authorities will be exercised within constitutional limits, while preserving the government’s ability counter foreign threats.
 
Now that would be a legacy.

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