THE 411 ON 702 Mike Johnson managed to avoid a messy Christmas spending fight. He’s getting a tricky surveillance battle instead. Congress has until the end of the year to figure out how to reauthorize Section 702, a program that is meant to target foreigners abroad but has come under scrutiny because of its ability to sweep in Americans. And while that debate has largely flown under the radar so far this year, it’s about to heat up in a big way once the House returns a week from today. The House’s Goldilocks dilemma: The House is currently on track to have three bills dealing with Section 702 and will now, as the story goes, have to figure out which one is just right:
- A forthcoming House Judiciary bill, which is likely to get marked up in committee late next week;
- A forthcoming House Intelligence Committee bill, which is expected to be rolled out post-Thanksgiving break;
- Or a bipartisan, bicameral bill already rolled out by reform advocates that goes beyond rewriting Section 702 and has sparked pushback from the Biden administration.
Panel vs. panel: The dynamics of the surveillance debate within the House have shifted toward reform in recent years, but the next month could determine how real that movement is. The two House panels reached consensus on several areas, including penalties for surveillance abuse, reporting and auditing requirements, and dramatically reducing the number of FBI personnel who are able to access sensitive data. But they’ve split on the key question of when a warrant should be required to search for Americans’ data swept in under the program. The Intelligence Committee’s proposals are narrower, and while skeptics believe the bill couldn’t get enough votes to pass the House, the panel’s members and staff have quietly conducted a broad education effort and released a report to counter what they view as misinformation. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a panel member, said he doubted “more than half of the House is going to oppose” a bipartisan Intelligence Committee proposal. As for the Judiciary proposal, Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has been doing some educating of his own, speaking about the matter at a Republican Study Committee lunch just before the break, for instance. “I think people are very receptive to the reforms we worked out with Intel and other things we want to do,” he told us after. What’s next: It’s worth watching how the bipartisan group behind option No. 3 operates. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), a Judiciary member who is among that cadre, said he expected the Judiciary proposal to include some of that bill’s provisions, such as a crackdown on government purchases from private data brokers and putting new guardrails on a Reagan-era executive order. The Judiciary bill has not been finalized, however, and it remains unclear whether Jordan’s initial offer will have Democratic buy-in or how much of the bicameral bill it will contain. Enough privacy advocates sit on Judiciary that the amendment process could get quite interesting if they are not satisfied, though some folks we spoke to are optimistic. The fallback option: We’ve also heard chatter from multiple corners that Congress could try to buy itself more time. One potential scenario, according to staffers involved in the surveillance debate, would be to attach a 702 extension of a month or two to the National Defense Authorization Act, which also has to pass by the end of the year. — Jordain Carney GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Tuesday, Nov. 21, where we have questions about the candles on President Joe Biden’s cake. DRAWING A FULL HOUSE With today’s special election in Utah’s 2nd congressional district, the House is on the cusp of returning to full strength, with 435 seated members, before the end of the month. It’s worth pausing for a moment to appreciate just how rare a full House has been in recent years. There were 435 seated members earlier this year for all of 86 days — from March 7, when Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.) was sworn in to replace the late Rep. Don McEachin, till May 31, when Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) resigned to lead the Rhode Island Foundation. Before that, the House had gone a whopping 1,261 days with at least one vacancy — meaning the entire 117th Congress never had a full 435 members seated. In fact, to find a House that had a full complement of members for more than half of its calendar days, you’d have to go all the way back to the 108th Congress, which ran from 2003 to 2005 (h/t to FiveThirtyEight, which did a good rundown earlier this year). Cicilline’s seat was filled in a special election earlier this month by Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.), who was sworn in just before Congress left for Thanksgiving recess. But in the meantime, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) also retired, creating that vacancy that will be filled in today’s election by either Republican Celeste Maloy or Democrat Kathleen Riebe. Heads up: This stretch of full attendance won’t last long: Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) announced Tuesday afternoon that he will resign early next year to accept an offer to lead Youngstown State University: “I will continue serving in the House for several more months, and you will see no let up.” — Daniella Diaz
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