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Far-right Republicans in<\/span> the House, including many members of the Freedom Caucus, revealed the price of their support for a controversial surveillance law this week: a ban on the unrelated and hypothetical possibility that the U.S. government might one day issue digital currency.<\/a><\/p>\n Twenty Republicans who opposed a procedural vote earlier this month flipped their position on Wednesday to allow a vote on a three-year extension of the law that allows government agents to search Americans\u2019 communications without a warrant.<\/p>\n Not all the Republicans voted for the final version of the bill, which passed 235\u2013191, but they were crucial in giving Johnson a hand on an initial procedural vote.<\/p>\n The final bill drew the support of dozens of Democrats, who backed it despite the polarizing central bank digital currency ban. One of the most prominent backers<\/a> was Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who gave a floor speech in support.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are spending some time now talking to those who want a bill that shows you can have both security and liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Now that it includes a digital currency ban, however, the House version of the law faces dim prospects in the Senate. The upshot of Johnson\u2019s maneuvering may be that the Senate has the final say on surveillance reforms.<\/p>\n Longtime privacy champion<\/a> Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told The Intercept that the versions of reauthorization on the table \u2014 one a three-year \u201cclean\u201d extension offered by Sen. Tom Cotton<\/a>, R-Ark., and the other the House version with the digital currency ban \u2014 were both \u201cdeeply flawed and unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, he is pitching colleagues on requiring a warrant<\/a> before government agents can search through foreign surveillance databases for the communications of Americans.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are spending some time now talking to those who want a bill that shows you can have both security and liberty,\u201d Wyden said, \u201cand they are not mutually exclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The high-stakes deliberations are happening against the backdrop of a looming deadline to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which underpins much of the National Security Agency\u2019s global surveillance apparatus.<\/p>\n The law authorizes much of the most valuable surveillance populating intelligence agency reports. It has also been abused hundreds of thousands of times<\/a> by officials at the FBI to scour through Americans\u2019 communications.<\/p>\n Johnson tried and failed to secure an extension of the law with minor tweaks earlier this month. Conservatives joined Democrats in opposing that push, and Congress ultimately wound up passing a short-term extension of the law that expires Friday.<\/p>\n The deadline is manufactured, many reformers say. A secretive intelligence court has already granted the government yearlong orders allowing it to continue scooping up information from private providers.<\/p>\n The Senate was set to hold its own vote on the surveillance bill Tuesday but wound up postponing it. In a floor speech, Wyden chalked the delay up to skepticism from senators about the bill in its current form. He called for discussions about reforms.<\/p>\n The nature of those negotiations remained up in the air Wednesday. Some senators said it was possible that Congress would pass another short-term extension of the law.<\/p>\n On Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats, told The Intercept, \u201cThe last thing I heard is that there was going to be another extension to give us more time to figure it out and get the House to decide what they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Wyden and other reformers have long pushed for a warrant requirement before government agents can search NSA databases for information on Americans. They say the need for reform is only more urgent now that artificial intelligence has made combing through those databases easier than ever.<\/p>\n They are pushing back against long-held skepticism from members of Congress who contend that requiring agents to get a court order would be too unwieldy in practice.<\/p>\n In an email to colleagues, for example, Himes, of the House Intelligence Committee, said that he would vote to reauthorize FISA \u201cbecause it is essential to keeping our country and our constituents safe from terrorists, cartels, spies, state-sponsored hackers, and other national security threats.\u201d<\/p>\n Himes said on the House floor later that the process leading up to the vote on Wednesday was flawed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are where we are, and it is a binary choice. And allowing this authority to expire, which I think we are close to, is not an option,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is we are further along in real reform than we have been since I have been in public service.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Wyden expressed optimism, citing the bipartisan coalition that has so far stymied President Donald Trump\u2019s demand for a clean extension.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is, we are further along in real reform than we have been since I have been in public service,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Whatever version of the law the Senate settles on, it likely will not involve a central bank digital currency ban. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has already described<\/a> that idea as \u201cdead on arrival.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s messing around with a very important national security issue,\u201d King said of the ban.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
Extending Deadline<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u201cDead On Arrival\u201d in Senate<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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