Congress
House GOP FISA tensions boil over as Johnson hunts for a plan
Tensions are continuing to rise inside the House GOP Conference as Republican leaders race to land a backup plan in the coming hours to reauthorize a controversial spy powers program.
Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview Wednesday afternoon that he’s “targeting tomorrow” for release of an updated proposal for extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. “It’s coming along well.”
It comes as Senate Majority Leader John Thune warned Wednesday that the House would need to file the bill by the end of this week to give his chamber time to act on the legislation ahead of the April 30 deadline. He previously suggested the Senate would take over FISA negotiations if the House couldn’t reach a deal.
The scramble is also taking place amid consternation from some House Republicans that Speaker Mike Johnson, in a desperate bid to get an agreement, isn’t taking their demands for a warrant requirement seriously and exploring plans where Democrats could help pass a long-term FISA reauthorization. Twenty conservatives blocked GOP leadership’s attempts to jam through a clean extension in the middle of the night last Friday.
“The speaker of the House told me that I should leave these negotiations to those that are more experts in the subject matter,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said in an interview Wednesday, after Johnson was seen huddling with some lawmakers on the House floor earlier in the day.
Two other people involved in the FISA floor talks acknowledged that conversations were contentious, with some conservatives expressing concerns that Johnson was preparing to back down on ceding to demands from members of his own party to add more guardrails to warrantless surveillance practices.
Leadership allies contend Johnson worked tirelessly with holdouts like Boebert all last week to try to strike a deal on an extension, but she was ultimately one of the 20 Republicans who voted down a procedural rule to advance an 18-month, clean FISA reauthorization, forcing the House to scramble to pass a 10-day patch.
Johnson has since been exploring ways to pass an extension that would appeal to more of a cross-section of members across both parties, but he has continued to engage Republicans. He had a one-on-one conversation just off the House floor Wednesday with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) about landing an agreement on the FISA extension; Issa later said they were extremely close to an agreement.
The speaker also hosted a group of GOP lawmakers in his office Wednesday afternoon, including Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Byron Donalds of Florida and Chip Roy of Texas.
Leaving the meeting, Perry said he thought they were making progress and that the House could reach a deal by next week’s deadline — but, he added, “I didn’t say it was going to be easy or fast.”
Fitzpatrick, who is talking to Democrats about a FISA deal and met with Johnson Tuesday evening on the matter, said the White House is more open to making changes around querying data — but not the full warrant requirement that hard-liners are seeking. He also warned that Republicans would have to pass another short-term extension if they aren’t able to get a longer-term bill across the finish line in the coming days.
“FISA won’t go dark,” he added.
The House Oversight Committee requested that Alan Dershowitz, the lawyer who once represented Jeffery Epstein, testify as part of its investigation into the federal government’s handling of the Epstein files.
The interview is tentatively slated for 10 a.m. on July 9, with a video and transcript of the testimony being released “as expeditiously as practical,” Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote in a letter to Dershowitz on Friday.
“Due to public reporting, documents released by the Department of Justice, documents obtained by the Committee, and your former role as Mr. Epstein’s attorney, the Committee believes you have information that will assist in its investigation,” Comer wrote.
Comer told reporters on Wednesday that he wanted to hear from Dershowitz, who helped Epstein secure a controversial plea deal in his 2008 sex abuse case.
“I’m looking forward to testifying,” Dershowitz wrote in a text message to Blue Light News on Friday, adding that he is “trying to adjust my schedule” for July 9.
Sen. John Cornyn isn’t a card-carrying member of the Senate GOP’s growing YOLO caucus. But with less than seven months left in office after losing his primary, the Texas Republican appears to be feeling newly free to speak his mind.
The latest clap-back came Thursday night and the early hours of Friday morning, when Cornyn called a conservative influencer a “grifter” and told Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on social media to stop publicly blaming fellow Republicans — including Senate Majority Leader John Thune — for the fact that the GOP elections bill doesn’t have support to pass inside the party.
“You don’t have the votes” for the SAVE America Act, Cornyn posted on X. “@LeaderJohnThune can’t change that. It is math.”
He was directing his comments at Lee, who had just penned a post telling Thune, “let’s do this!”
Cornyn continued, “Try focusing on Democrats instead of Republicans. Republican on Republican attacks are hurting our chances to win the majority in November.”
Lee responded to ask, “on what planet is this an attack on Republicans?” and appeared to suggest a staffer was tweeting on Cornyn’s behalf: “Once my friend John Cornyn realizes that you’re saying this in his name—whoever you are—I don’t think he’ll be happy with you.”
Cornyn, however, is known for posting himself on his social media accounts in a chamber where many Senate accounts are run solely by staff. And he’s been making it clear all week that he will push back on Trump and his party when he thinks it’s needed.
In multiple conversations with reporters in the Capitol, Cornyn said that Republicans need to “stop the circular firing squad.” And he added that he won’t intentionally be “a thorn in [Trump’s] side,” but he’s also “not going to go out of my way to try to appease him.”
“I want him to succeed, I want the Republican Party to succeed, I want the country to succeed,” Cornyn said this week. “But on a case-by-case basis, when I think there’s been overreach or just a bad idea, I’m not going to hesitate to weigh in.”
The four-term senator’s comments come after he lost his primary last month to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who Trump endorsed in the final days of the runoff.
Cornyn said in an interview with The New York Times that he was not a “wounded bear” but that he believed Trump’s insistence on “slavish adherence” was going to backfire for Republicans in the midterms and result in “the most miserable two years of his life” if Democrats flip the House or Senate.
“I think it is going to be a pretty bumpy ride for the next seven months,” Cornyn said.
Chuck Schumer wants Congress to pass AI legislation. But he’s casting doubt on it happening this year.
“In this Congress, it’s hard,” the Senate minority leader said in an interview Thursday.
Schumer’s reality check isn’t a complete door-slam. But it underscores the steep climb lawmakers face to bridge a slew of intra-party and inter-chamber divides about what Washington’s approach should be toward the emerging opportunities and risks from the rapidly developing technology.
The problems are multi-pronged.
The White House, whose posture toward AI has shifted dramatically in recent weeks, is angling to enact legislation that would preempt state laws in favor of a national standard. Most recently, administration officials have been exploring a plan to attach preemption legislation to bills designed to shore up kids’ safety online. But there are issues — House Republicans aren’t in love with the Senate GOP’s kid safety bills and Senate Majority Leader John Thune has warned that many senators have concerns “about not trampling states’ rights in the process.”
Democrats aren’t unified on what to do next, with the public broadly skeptical about AI.
Some House and Senate Democrats are leery of state preemption and want to wait until next year to tackle AI, when they might be in power. Opposition from key Democrats is a major factor derailing an attempt by Reps. Lori Trahan and Jay Obernolte to strike a deal on legislation that would set nationwide safety and transparency rules while restricting state action. And Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have proposed a moratorium on AI data centers pending stricter government oversight.
Schumer is striking a balanced tone on how to proceed, arguing that there are “tremendous benefits” from AI but that “we also have to have guardrails.”
“We should get something done on AI, and it’s … got to be balanced — keep innovation strong, but have guardrails to prevent the dangers,” he said. “That’s a hard needle to thread, but I would very much like to see that get done the sooner the better.”
What else we’re watching:
— FISA LAPSE, CLAYTON NOMINATION: Thune is vowing to move “fairly quickly” to confirm Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence, with the FISA Section 702 spy authority set to lapse at midnight thanks to a stalemate between Democrats and the White House over the position.
— GOP ADVANCES BIG DEFENSE BOOST — Republicans have taken the first steps toward granting President Donald Trump’s request for the largest budget ever for the Pentagon. Senate Armed Services members on Thursday approved a draft of their annual defense authorization bill outlining priorities for $1.14 trillion in defense spending next year. The House Appropriations defense subcommittee advanced $1.1 trillion in fiscal 2027 funding for the Defense Department in a closed-door markup.
Calen Razor and Connor O’Brien contributed reporting.
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