Thread by @LizaGoitein

.@SpeakerJohnson has caved to the House Intelligence Committee’s bush league tactics and will block votes on a key reform when Section 702 reauthorization goes to the House floor this week. 1/12 politico.com/newsletters/pl…

The base bill that the House will consider—the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA)—contains no meaningful reforms. In fact, the bill would actually weaken the FISA Court’s oversight of surveillance. 2/12 brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…

In February, members of the House’s Judiciary and Intelligence Committees had reached a deal with Johnson, under which he planned to bring RISAA to the floor and allow each committee to offer three amendments. 3/12

The Judiciary Committee’s amendments would have added reforms to end warrantless surveillance of Americans under Section 702 and other authorities. The Intelligence Committee’s amendments, unsurprisingly, would have expanded warrantless surveillance. 4/12

On the eve of the vote, Intelligence Committee members got cold feet. After their efforts to stoke opposition to reforms by exposing the “Russian space nukes” program proved futile, they simply pulled out of the deal and threatened to block all votes. 5/12 wired.com/story/section-…

It now seems that Johnson has decided to reward their bad behavior and give them the heckler’s veto they demand. Specifically, he will not allow Judiciary Committee members to offer an amendment to close the data broker loophole. 6/12

The amendment would end the government’s practice of evading constitutional and statutory privacy protections by purchasing Americans’ sensitive information from data brokers, rather than obtaining the warrant/court order/subpoena otherwise required by law. 7/12

Recent polling shows that 80 percent of Americans support this measure. Last year, the Judiciary Committee *unanimously* passed a bill, the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FAINFSA), that would have prohibited government purchases of certain highly sensitive data. 8/12

Rather than allow a vote on this amendment, Johnson has indicated he will bring FAINFSA to the floor this Friday as a stand-alone bill “on suspension.” This move is designed to kill the legislation, as suspension votes require a (nearly impossible) two-thirds majority. 9/12

Moreover, even if the House could meet this threshold, the Senate could simply choose not to take up the data broker bill. By contrast, Section 702 is due to expire on April 19, so the Senate will almost certainly vote on whatever Section 702 bill the House sends over. 10/12

Johnson has showed his true colors. His desire to appease Intelligence Committee chair Mike Turner outweighs any sense of responsibility he might have to the American people, and he is ready and willing to betray their trust. 11/12

Americans should speak up and demand that he reverse course. RT if you believe @SpeakerJohnson should allow votes on—and SUPPORT—amendments to protect Americans from warrantless surveillance, under both Sec. 702 *and* the data broker loophole. 12/12