House lawmakers strike agreement to renew surveillance law and address Carter Page FISA issues

House lawmakers on Tuesday struck a bipartisan agreement on changes to a key national security surveillance law, including additional privacy protections and changes to the court that approved surveillance warrants on a Trump campaign adviser.

The agreement was reached just days before a Sunday deadline, when three authorities in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, are set to expire. It represents the rare case when Democrats and Republicans were able to hash out a compromise — especially related to the hotly contentious issue of the FBI’s investigation into members of President Donald Trump’s team during the 2016 campaign.

The House will vote on the legislation on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement Tuesday evening, predicting a “strong and bipartisan vote” to approve the measure. But it’s still not clear whether the Senate can pass the measure before the authorities lapse on Sunday. House Democrats and Republicans hashed out the agreement with the White House and Attorney General William Barr, but the Senate was not involved — and a single senator could stall a vote in the chamber.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina said Tuesday afternoon they had not seen details of the House’s agreement, although Burr said he was inclined to support it if Barr signed off.

“If he signed off on it, it would probably be something that we would be comfortable with,” Burr said.

House aides in both parties, including from the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees, hammered out the final details of the bill into the afternoon on Tuesday before the final text was posted. The agreement was struck among lawmakers who have warred for years over Russia and former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation: Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff of California and Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York on the Democratic side, and GOP Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Devin Nunes of California and Doug Collins of Georgia.

A Justice Department official said the department was pleased with the direction of the proposed FISA legislation. Justice Department officials have been working closely with the committees and believe the proposal includes significant revisions.

There are, however, some issues the department is still working with lawmakers to change, the official said, including the three-year expiration, which is shorter than previous extensions.

“We are very close,” the official said.

Changes to address Carter Page FISA warrant

The three expiring provisions are unrelated to warrants obtained in the FISA court, but the blowback over a scathing inspector general report on the FISA warrants for former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page prompted Democrats to agree to some changes that were demanded by House Republicans and Trump.

“Working with our Republican colleagues, we mandated additional transparency in FISA applications, created additional scrutiny for cases that involve elected officials, and elevated the consequences for misrepresenting information of the FISA court,” Nadler said.

Jordan, who has been a fierce defender of the President and critic of the FISA process, said that the measure “represents real reform” of the FISA process.

Jordan said the law will require the attorney general to sign off on FISA applications on elected officials and federal candidates, allow independent monitors to review applications, makes it a crime to lie to the FISA court, requires transcripts of court hearings and allows the House and Senate Intelligence Committee to review FISA applications and materials.

“This is definitely better than where we are with current law,” Jordan said.

Nadler said the agreement also included some new privacy protections that liberals were demanding in Section 215 of the FISA law on business records — which allows the FBI to obtain tangible things — including prohibiting the FBI from obtaining GPS or other cell phone site information.

In addition, the House bill would formally end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone data, a program that the NSA stopped using last year. The measure mostly prevents the government from retaining materials collected under Section 215 for more than five years, and requires officers preparing FISA applications to certify that the Justice Department has been given all information that might raise doubts about the accuracy of the application — a reference to GOP criticisms that the Page warrant did not properly disclose dossier author Christopher Steele’s ties to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

Critics say revisions not enough

It’s not clear whether the changes will be enough to convince opponents of the FISA law in the Senate on both sides of the aisle.

Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and fierce opponent of the FISA law, forced a delay on a Senate vote in 2015 that caused the authorities to briefly lapse. He told CNN Tuesday he had not yet seen the final agreement but what he had heard sounded “quite tepid.”

“I will be putting forward an amendment that says FISA shouldn’t be used on Americans and we’ll see where that goes,” Paul said, adding he hadn’t made any decisions yet on whether to filibuster the measure.

“So far, I have not seen anything that would satisfy me,” GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, another FISA opponent, said earlier Tuesday. “I think we need very aggressive, substantive reform.”

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a leading Democratic critic of the FISA law, said the House’s measure “includes provisions sought by reformers, but falls far short of the meaningful protections for Americans’ rights that members from both parties have demanded.”

Passing a reauthorization of the three authorities that lapse on Sunday has been a tricky endeavor for Congress thanks to divisions in both parties over the law.

Among Democrats, liberals have been pushing for greater civil liberties protections in the FISA law, and Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California scuttled an earlier vote on the bill in the House Judiciary Committee when she proposed amendments that would have likely sunk the overall bill.

For Republicans, the FBI’s FISA warrant for Page was a flashpoint to change the law, after the Justice Department inspector general detailed numerous problems with the warrants and their renewals.

After lawmakers met at the White House with Trump and Barr last week, Barr met Monday evening with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and other House Republicans as the negotiations continued to progress.

Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota said it was unclear whether the Senate would be able to take up the measure this week — saying it depends on if any senator tries to slow down the process.

“For us, it depends on how many procedural roadblocks members want to throw up but … we’ll try to move it,” Thune said. “If they’ve got a bigger deal on some reforms, I would think that will help presumably with some of our members who otherwise might vote to let them expire.”

This story has been updated with additional developments Tuesday.