House GOP FISA tensions boil over as Johnson hunts for a plan

Tensions are continuing to rise inside the House GOP Conference as Republican leaders race to land a backup plan in the coming hours to reauthorize a controversial spy powers program.

Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview Wednesday afternoon that he's “targeting tomorrow” for release of an updated proposal for extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. “It’s coming along well.”

It comes as Senate Majority Leader John Thune warned Wednesday that the House would need to file the bill by the end of this week to give his chamber time to act on the legislation ahead of the April 30 deadline. He previously suggested the Senate would take over FISA negotiations if the House couldn’t reach a deal.

The scramble is also taking place amid consternation from some House Republicans that Johnson, in a desperate bid to get an agreement, isn’t taking their demands for a warrant requirement seriously and exploring plans where Democrats could help pass a long-term FISA reauthorization. Twenty conservatives blocked GOP leadership’s attempts to jam through a clean extension in the middle of the night last Friday.

“The speaker of the House told me that I should leave these negotiations to those that are more experts in the subject matter,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said in an interview Wednesday, after Johnson was seen huddling with some lawmakers on the House floor earlier in the day.

Two other people involved in the FISA floor talks acknowledged that conversations were contentious, with some conservatives expressing concerns that Johnson was preparing to back down on ceding to demands from members of his own party to add more guardrails to warrantless surveillance practices.

Leadership allies contend Johnson worked tirelessly with holdouts like Boebert all last week to try to strike a deal on an extension, but she was ultimately one of the 20 Republicans who voted down a procedural rule to advance an 18-month, clean FISA reauthorization, forcing the House to scramble to pass a 10-day patch.

Johnson has since been exploring ways to pass an extension that would appeal to more of a cross-section of members across both parties, but he has continued to engage Republicans. He had a one-on-one conversation just off the House floor Wednesday with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) about landing an agreement on the FISA extension; Issa later said they were extremely close to an agreement.

The speaker also hosted a group of GOP lawmakers in his office Wednesday afternoon, including Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Byron Donalds of Florida and Chip Roy of Texas.

Leaving the meeting, Perry said he thought they were making progress and that the House could reach a deal by next week’s deadline — but, he added, “I didn’t say it was going to be easy or fast.”

Fitzpatrick, who is talking to Democrats about a FISA deal and met with Johnson on Tuesday evening on the matter, said the White House is more open to making changes around querying data — but not the full warrant requirement that hard-liners are seeking. He also warned that Republicans would have to pass another short-term extension if they aren’t able to get a longer-term bill across the finish line in the coming days.

“FISA won’t go dark,” he added.