Republicans discuss boosting existing spy powers guardrails as FISA compromise

Republicans are discussing a year-long renewal of the nation’s warrantless spy powers in exchange for strengthening current aspects of the law, multiple sources involved in the talks told The Hill.

Such a package would scale back the 18-month timeline requested by President Trump in renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA), which allows the government to spy on foreigners located abroad.

The GOP has struggled to reach a deal on reauthorizing Section 702, as several members have demanded reforms or to attach unrelated legislation. Some Republicans earlier Thursday also floated a clean 60-day extension to buy more time to negotiate.Under the agreement still being discussed, intelligence officers would face increased criminal penalties for abusing Section 702.It would also allow a larger group of lawmakers to see the activity being reviewed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, expanding access beyond the Intelligence committees. 

Also at part of negotiations is a push to add a ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The ban was included in a House version of the annual defense authorization bill, but it was stripped out of the final version. Anti-CBDC advocates are seeing the FISA reauthorization as one of the few must-pass bills they have left where CBDC can be a rider that gets to the president’s desk.A source, speaking on background to discuss sensitive negotiations, cautioned that nothing was finalized, but described a potential package as an offramp ahead of an April 20 expiration date for the spy powers. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), a FISA skeptic, said he was approached to see whether he would back the contours of such a deal. But Davidson said he preferred an approach discussed earlier Thursday that would do a clean two-month extension of Section 702 as a way to buy time to pursue more serious reforms. “We’re close, but there’s material concerns, and frankly, there are a lot of people that you know well, if you move this way, maybe you lose people in the other room. So you need to socialize these things,” he told reporters. He said a short-term extension would provide time to discuss “material reforms.”“All those things are doable in 30, 60, or 90 days,” he said, arguing that Congress needs the pressure of deadlines to take action. “You don’t need a year to work on that.”Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) wouldn’t provide details but said a longer term plan was being discussed. “I’ve always held that if worse comes to worse, you do a short term extension, but again, I think we might come to a longer term conclusion,” he said. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) acknowledged negotiations Thursday after multiple members were spotted meeting on the House floor, but he also said nothing had yet been settled and would not reveal the details being discussed. “We’re very close. Had some great discussion on the floor. Everybody’s coming together, and I think we’ll be able to meet our deadlines,” Johnson told reporters. “We’re in the middle of that, but we’re building consensus, and I’m very optimistic we’ll get there.”Emily Brooks contributed.

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