A group of 19 House Republicans joined with Democrats on Wednesday to vote against a procedural move to begin debate on a bill to reauthorize the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers, throwing the intelligence tool's authority into question.
The procedural vote to advance Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) failed 193-228. The move comes after former President Trump on Wednesday urged Republicans to “kill FISA”, dividing the GOP.
These are the 19 Republicans who broke with their party and voted against advancing the bill:
Rep. Andy Biggs (Ariz.)
Rep. Dan Bishop (N.C.)
Rep. Lauren Boebert (Colo.)
Rep. Tim Burchett (Tenn.)
Rep. Michael Cloud (Texas)
Rep. Eli Crane (Ariz.)
Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.)
Rep. Bob Good (Va.)
Rep. Paul Gosar (Ariz.)
Rep. Clay Higgins (La.)
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.)
Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.)
Rep. Cory Mills (Fla.)
Rep. Ralph Norman (S.C.)
Rep. Andy Ogles (Tenn.)
Rep. Scott Perry (Pa.)
Rep. Matt Rosendale (Mont.)
Rep. Chip Roy (Texas)
Rep. Greg Steube (Fla.)
Almost all the Republicans who voted against advancing the bill are members of the House Freedom Caucus who argued that FISA surveillance violates Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights because it does not require a warrant. The caucus first pushed for a warrant amendment to the bill in February.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to make sure that our government can’t keep spying on us citizens without a warrant,” Good, the Freedom Caucus chair, said at a press conference in February.
“Simply put, anonymous bureaucrats have abused this tool that was intended for supporting surveillance of threats to spy on American citizens, but conservatives are fighting for strict reforms to this law.”
Gaetz led the push against the bill among the House’s most conservative members. FISA authority expires on April 19.
“FISA authorities have been used to violate the law more than 278,000 times by the national security state, and there has yet to be any consequences for this illegal activity by our government,” Gaetz said in a statement Wednesday.
“The reauthorization lacks essential reforms to protect Americans' Fourth Amendment rights, such as requiring the FBI to obtain a warrant before searching Americans’ data and a prohibition on the government purchasing Americans’ data from third-party data brokers,” he continued.
Democrats have generally opposed FISA authority extensions for similar reasons, with it being the rare issue that unites both the farthest left and farthest right wings of the House.
Updated at 3:23 p.m. EST.
