A number of Republicans in the House of Representatives forced a second vote on the legislation to renew the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that is scheduled for Monday.
Among them are Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), who said Friday that he asked former President Donald Trump to help with the effort.
Republicans have filed a motion to reconsider HR 7888 following the narrow failure of an amendment, filed by Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05), which would have required federal investigators obtain a warrant before spying on American citizens.
In a Friday video posted to the social media platform X, Ogles confirmed a second vote on Monday.
“Immediately, I reached out to the president, former President Donald Trump,” Ogles said in the video to his constituents. He added, “We’re going to try to get him to engage on this issue.”
Ogles voted and campaigned for the amendment proposed by Biggs, but nonetheless highlighted a second amendment that lowers the length of the FISA reauthorization from five years to two.
“There was a victory in that we held it up, forced a vote, it went from a five year authorization to a two year authorization. That’s a win.”
Ogles explained, “I’ll be honest with you, that’s better than it was, because what that does is put this bill under, presumably, President Donald Trump, and we can come back and we can fix it again.”
Just texted @realDonaldTrump…
The FISA fight is not over! https://t.co/DRDMLUnjQY
— Rep. Andy Ogles (@RepOgles) April 12, 2024
Ogles is joined by Representatives Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL-13) and Chip Roy (R-TX-21), who both posted to social media to confirm they will push colleagues to vote against reauthorizing FISA on Monday.
“It’s not over,” wrote Roy in a Friday post to X. “There will be ONE more vote on Monday on a reconsideration of FISA in the U.S. House.”
He added, “The bill should be stopped because it lacks warrant protection for Americans – thanks to 86 Republicans [and] 126 Democrats who killed the warrant.”
BREAKING: It’s not over. There will be ONE more vote on Monday on a reconsideration of FISA in the U.S. House. The bill should be stopped because it lacks warrant protection for Americans – thanks to 86 Republicans & 126 Democrats who killed the warrant. #GetAWarrant pic.twitter.com/0YZ2J4IlgO
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) April 12, 2024
Luna posted to X a letter sent by her office to colleagues which urged them to vote against the FISA reauthorization on Monday.
She wrote that Biggs’ amendment “would have protected Americans and upheld the 4th Amendment of the Constitution,” but due to its failure, she urged colleagues to reconsider the reauthorization.
The Republican then specifically targeted the 56 lawmakers who voted to reauthorize FISA despite also voting for Biggs’ amendment, declaring, “we must fight to get the Biggs Amendment adopted in the final passage of this legislation.”
The fight for taking down the unconstitutional FISA is not over. There is another vote on Monday! I have sent this letter to all Republicans, and we are sending it to all Democrats. We need 218 to stand with us against the unconstitutional surveillance of Americans. pic.twitter.com/TKe59Rvf8d
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) April 13, 2024
A spokesman for U.S. Representative David Kustoff, who was the sole Republican member of Tennessee’s congressional delegation to vote against Biggs’ amendment, did not respond to The Tennessee Star when asked if he intended to vote to reauthorize FISA without the amendment.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “Rep Andy Ogles” by Rep. Andy Ogles.
Warrants should be a minimum. Actually, however, the FISA court ‘never saw a warrant it didn’t approve’ – ok, there were one or two, however in general the unchecked FISA court approves almost EVERY warrant applied for!
Kill FISA completely!