White House stresses FISA bill is ‘critical’ as House tees up final vote

The White House stressed Friday that the bill to reauthorize the United States’s warrantless surveillance authority is critical to U.S. national security, just after the House advanced it and ahead of an expected final vote later in the day.

“Obviously we strongly support the bipartisan effort to get 702 reauthorized,” national security communications adviser John Kirby told reporters. “It is vital to our ability to defend ourselves, defend … the American people, and we very much want to see it move forward — get extended and move forward.”

He added that the White House supports “a lot” of the reforms made to the bill. Earlier Friday, the House passed the bill — which reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for two years — in a 213-208 vote. Conservatives earlier this week blocked a previous version of the bill.

Kirby was asked about the bill in the context of the “viable threat” he described about a potential attack from Iran on Israel.

Kirby said Section 702 is “critical for all threats, not just any particular one threat.” He added that the U.S. is monitoring the Iranian threat “very, very closely.”

Section 702 allows for the warrantless surveillance of foreigners located abroad. Kirby outlined that Section 702 contributed to the U.S. strike that killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as the ability to identify who was behind the ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline, uncover Russia’s actions in Ukraine, and disrupt an assassination plot on U.S. soil against a dissident by a hostile foreign power.

Congress is facing an April 19 deadline to reauthorize the program, and a final vote on the legislation is slated for later Friday. Nineteen Republicans tanked a procedural vote Wednesday after former President Trump derailed a compromise bill by urging Congress to “kill FISA” in a post on his Truth Social account.