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House Passes Bill Preserving F.B.I. Surveillance Powers (archive)
The House passed a bipartisan adjustment of key surveillance laws on Wednesday, cobbling together an unusual coalition of lawmakers to approve some new privacy protections for Americans and extend three expiring F.B.I. tools for investigating terrorism and espionage.
The vote appeared to be a breakthrough after weeks of negotiations in both the House and the Senate to prevent the surveillance tools from expiring this weekend and to address abuses identified in F.B.I. applications to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser. Though civil libertarians in both parties opposed it as a half-measure that fell short of the kind of sweeping protections they favor, the bill passed with strong Democratic and Republican support, 278 to 136.
[...] In the Senate, Republican leaders urged their colleagues to support the House agreement and pledged to move it "as soon as possible." They were trying to line up an expedited Thursday vote, but their aides said it would depend on whether the bill's opponents would use Senate rules to slow down passage. A handful of senators have long championed broader surveillance reforms, like Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, and Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, and argue that the House changes leave Americans' privacy at risk of intrusion by government investigators.
Even if they stall the bill, once it does make it to a Senate vote, a similar bipartisan coalition of lawmakers most likely will amount to the 60 votes needed to overcome objections.
See also: House passes key surveillance bill with deadline looming
Sen. Mike Lee urges Trump to veto House FISA bill
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @06:09PM (1 child)
once again there are only two congressmen with the real american position. hang the rest!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by vux984 on Thursday March 12 2020, @08:12PM
Perfect is the enemy of good. If this bill is a step in the right direction it should be approved. That doesn't mean the job is done.
Paul and Wyden know damned well they aren't going to stop this bill out right, it clearly has sufficient bi-partisan support -- so they should be doing as much as they can within the system rather than standing outside of it and simply getting ignored because their votes aren't required to pass it.
So this arguably reduces their outsider position to be a PR stunt.
That said, given the bill was going to pass regardless, a PR stunt may well be the best option they have to keep the issue in the news and advance their cause.
Finally, 276 to 138 is not TWO holdouts, there's a lot of people who voted against this; whether they wanted even more surveillance or less is an open question?