By David Morgan, Raphael Satter and AJ Vicens
WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s effort to renew its warrantless domestic surveillance powers cleared the House of Representatives on Wednesday, after House Speaker Mike Johnson and Trump administration officials persuaded Republican holdouts to back the bill.
The renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act now goes to the Senate, where it faces a potentially rough reception because it was attached to unrelated legislation that would restrict the Federal Reserve’s ability to issue digital currency – something Senate Majority Leader John Thune has described as a non-starter.
That snag means that strong-arming House members to pass the bill “could prove to be a Pyrrhic victory for Johnson,” said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. In an earlier vote to open debate on the legislation, several House lawmakers flipped their votes to “yes” as Trump administration officials stalked the floor.
President Donald Trump, once a FISA critic and now a powerful advocate, is pressuring lawmakers to endorse the surveillance law.
(Writing by Raphael Satter; Editing by Rod Nickel and Edmund Klamann)
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