周三，众议院就重新授权《外国情报监控法案》进行的一项关键程序性投票失败，这是在议长迈克·约翰逊领导下共和党内斗的又一迹象。
19名共和党人打破了党内领导层的立场，投票反对这项措施，尽管约翰逊敦促说，这项立法改革了FISA计划，是国家安全所必需的。最终投票结果是193票对228票。
约翰逊在失败后对记者说:“我们将重组并制定另一个计划。“我们不能让702条款失效。这对国家安全太重要了。我认为大多数成员都明白这一点。”
“多数党推翻自己的统治从来都没有帮助，”他补充说。
FISA是一项联邦法律，规定了收集外国公民情报的程序，但有时会收集与被监视者接触的美国人的数据。
强硬的共和党人反对在没有修正案的情况下重新授权FISA，修正案要求情报界获得额外的授权才能访问这些美国人的数据。包括美国公民自由联盟在内的一些公民自由组织也推动了类似的改革。周三投票通过的法案不包括逮捕令修正案。
情报界警告说，额外授权的要求可能会在FISA进程中造成大量积压，并实际上关闭该项目。
前总统唐纳德·特朗普在投票前权衡此事时，加大了对共和党议员的压力，要求他们反对这项立法。
在一个在他保守的社交网站上发帖特朗普称要“杀死FISA”，这是他对美国联邦调查局监控卡特·佩吉的不满的一部分。曾是特朗普的竞选顾问。
据多名成员透露，尽管反对声越来越大，约翰逊仍试图在周三早些时候的一次闭门会议上向众议院共和党人推销FISA法案。
这是约翰逊担任议长六个月期间第四次失败的规则投票，这让众议院共和党领导层感到尴尬。
每个民主党人都投票反对这种程序性投票，这是众议院少数党投票反对多数党程序性投票的常见做法。
民主党领导层和白宫已经公开支持FISA的重新授权，当该立法提交正式投票时，大多数民主党人可能最终会投票延长FISA任期。
国家安全顾问杰克·沙利文周二在白宫对记者发表讲话时，也提出了国会重新授权FISA的理由。
沙利文说:“如果我们失去了(FISA的)702，我们将失去对美国人期望我们政府识别和应对的威胁的关键洞察力。”
沙利文接着列举了一些例子:“对本土的恐怖主义威胁、将致命药物带入美国社区的芬太尼供应链、敌对政府在我们中间招募间谍、专制政权的跨国镇压、对我们关键基础设施的渗透、对手试图非法获取敏感的军民两用商品和技术、针对美国大公司和非营利组织的勒索软件攻击、俄罗斯的战争罪行等等。”
House fails to pass procedural vote on FISA in blow to GOP
A key procedural vote on a bill to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act failed on the House floor on Wednesday, another sign of Republican infighting under Speaker Mike Johnson's leadership.
Nineteen Republicans broke ranks with party leadership and voted against the measure, despite urging from Johnson that the legislation reformed the FISA program and is necessary for national security. The final vote was 193-228.
"We will regroup and formulate another plan," Johnson told reporters after the defeat. "We cannot allow Section 702 of FISA to expire. It's too important to national security. I think most of the members understand that."
"It's never helpful for the majority party to take down its own rule," he added.
FISA is a federal law that establishes procedures for intelligence gathering of foreign nationals, but sometimes results in the collection of data on Americans who are in contact with those surveilled individuals.
Hard-line Republicans are opposed to reauthorizing FISA without an amendment that would require the intelligence community to obtain an additional warrant to access the data of those Americans. Some civil liberties groups, including the ACLU, have also pushed for similar reforms. The bill voted on Wednesday didn't include the warrant amendment.
The requirement of an additional warrant, the intelligence community has warned, could create a massive backlog in the FISA process and effectively shut down the program.
Former President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on GOP lawmakers to oppose the legislation as he weighed in on the matter ahead of the vote.
In apost on his conservative social media site, Trump said to "KILL FISA" as part of his grievances against the FBI's handling of surveillance against Carter Page, a former adviser to his campaign.
Johnson tried to sell House Republicans on the FISA legislation during a closed-door conference meeting earlier Wednesday despite growing opposition, according to several members.
This is the fourth rule vote that's failed during Johnson's six months as speaker, an embarrassment for House Republican leadership.
Every Democrat also voted against this procedural vote, a common practice in the House where the minority party votes against the procedural votes of the majority.
Democratic leadership and the White House have vocally supported FISA reauthorization and a majority of Democrats would likely ultimately vote to extend FISA when the legislation is brought up for an official vote.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking with reporters at the White House on Tuesday, also made his case for Congress to reauthorize FISA.
"If we lost 702 [of FISA], we would lose vital insight into precisely the threats Americans expect us in government to identify and counter," Sullivan said.
Sullivan proceeded to list off some examples: "Terrorist threats to the homeland, fentanyl supply chains bringing deadly drugs into American communities, hostile governments' recruitment of spies in our midst, transnational repression by authoritarian regimes, penetrations of our critical infrastructure, adversaries' attempts to illicitly acquire sensitive dual use and military commodities and technology, ransomware attacks against major American companies and nonprofits, Russian war crimes and more."
