Conservative revolt in the House blocks effort to reauthorize a key US spy tool

AP ^ | April 10, 2024 | ERIC TUCKER and FARNOUSH AMIRI

[McGruff]

A bill that would reauthorize a crucial national security surveillance program was blocked Wednesday by a conservative revolt, pushing the prospects of final passage into uncertainty amid a looming deadline. The legislative impasse follows an edict earlier in the day from former President Donald Trump to “kill” the measure.

The bill in question would renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of non-Americans located outside the country to gather foreign intelligence. The reauthorization is currently tied to a series of reforms aimed at satisfying critics who complained of civil liberties violations against Americans.

...

The bill’s failure also reflected the dramatic ideological shift in the Republican Party, which for years after the Sept. 11 attacks supported expansive surveillance in the name of national security but has more recently walked back from that position thanks in part to lingering outrage over the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign. That skepticism of the government’s spy powers has created an unusual alliance between far-right Republicans and civil liberties-minded Democrats.

[rlmorel]

You bet...thank you for accepting my apology...I am trying every single day to be more cerebral and less emotional in my posts, for obvious reasons. Being emotional can be fun and satisfying, but can also be destructive and counterproductive.

I like Free Republic. It is why I come back here year after year and pay for the privilege to do so.

I don’t want to be one of those people who has a list of people on FR they have to avoid contact with. Too much like real life online!

I have a very small list (now only a few, two or three maybe) and it is Freepers I have attempted to mend fences with and have been told by the in no uncertain terms they weren’t interested in mending fences with me. So I just stay out of their way.

So when I say thank you, I mean it.