On Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) declared that the House would no longer entertain a government surveillance bill following the House Intelligence Committee being outmaneuvered by pro-reform lawmakers.

Raj Shah, the deputy communications chief for Speaker Johnson, announced, “In order to allow Congress more time to reach consensus on how best to reform FISA and Section 702 while maintaining the integrity of our critical national security programs, the House will consider the reform and reauthorization bill at a later date.”

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s (R-MN) office stated in a press release that lawmakers would no longer vote on H.R. 7320, the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, this week.

The decision came after the House Rules Committee conducted a hearing on the legislation aimed at reforming Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), set to expire on April 19.

Section 702 enables intelligence agencies to gather communications from specific foreign targets, potentially leading to the targeted surveillance of Americans’ private communications, Breitbart News reported.

Privacy advocates argue that this approach circumvents the Fourth Amendment’s requirement for a warrant to search Americans’ communications.

Written by B.C. Begley