{"id":21598,"date":"2026-04-20T12:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-fisa-fight-weighs-on-gop-priorities\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T12:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:17:13","slug":"capitol-agenda-fisa-fight-weighs-on-gop-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-fisa-fight-weighs-on-gop-priorities\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: FISA fight weighs on GOP priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The FISA punt is setting up a chaotic stretch on Capitol Hill, with GOP infighting now threatening to jam up other Republican priorities.<\/p>\n

After a dramatic collapse on the House floor<\/a>, GOP leaders have 10 days to find a path forward on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before the law expires April 30.<\/p>\n

The timing couldn\u2019t be worse<\/a>. President Donald Trump\u2019s June 1 deadline to pass immigration enforcement funding and reopen DHS is fast approaching, and Republicans are already running out of runway.<\/p>\n

Early this week, Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham is expected to release text of a budget resolution that would provide up to $75 billion in funding for DHS immigration enforcement, followed by an initial vote as soon as Wednesday.<\/p>\n

House Republicans will need to figure out their FISA deal quickly or risk having the fight weigh on the timeline for adopting the budget resolution. House GOP leaders are already planning to push back work this month on the SCORE Act \u2014 the college athletics revamp \u2014 because of the spy powers fight.<\/p>\n

When it comes to FISA, Senate Republicans are done waiting on the House and are preparing to grab the wheel. Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Friday teed up consideration of a three-year 702 extension.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to have optionality here,\u201d he said. \u201cI don’t know what the House is going to be able to do, and so we’ll be preparing accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaker Mike Johnson has to figure out how to address conservatives\u2019 concerns over warrantless surveillance potentially sweeping up U.S. citizens, as well as their demand to ban the future launch of a central bank digital currency as part of the FISA bill \u2014 which Thune told us would threaten support in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in an interview that House Republicans are still figuring out a different legislative vehicle where they could attach the CBDC ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna find a place for it,\u201d Scalise said.<\/p>\n

Some House Republicans are hoping they just need to massage a five-year 702 extension with relatively minor changes aimed at privacy hawks. But others are predicting they\u2019ll face the same internal schism in 10 days. Some, including Rep. Don Bacon, believe it\u2019s time to make a deal with Democrats.<\/p>\n

Sen. Ron Wyden is promising to \u201cpull out all the stops\u201d for stronger FISA reforms. Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on House Intel, is finding himself performing rare \u201cshuttle diplomacy\u201d between GOP factions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I learned tonight,\u201d Himes said as it was all crashing down last week, \u201cwas that Republicans don’t talk to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

What else we’re watching:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Burgum on Blue Light News: <\/b>A House Appropriations subcommittee will hold a hearing at 3:30 p.m. with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. Appropriators are expected to ask him about plans to downsize the department, including a proposal to cut National Park Service staffing by almost 3,000 positions.<\/p>\n

\u2014 SCM expulsion push:<\/b> Republicans including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna<\/b> will try to force a vote to expel Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick<\/b> immediately after a House Ethics decision Tuesday on her punishment for ethics violations.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Iran AUMF incoming? <\/b>Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she and a group of senators are drafting an authorization for use of military force for the Iran war, as a growing number of Republicans raise public concerns<\/a> about the conflict. Senate Democrats plan to force a war powers vote this week, and House Democrats may as well. <\/p>\n

Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney, Manuel Qui\u00f1ones and Andres Picon contributed to this report. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The FISA punt is setting up a chaotic stretch on Capitol Hill, with GOP infighting now threatening to jam up other Republican priorities. After a dramatic collapse on the House floor, GOP leaders have 10 days to find a path forward on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before the law expires April […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}