The Senate agreed to a deal to vote on extending an expiring foreign surveillance law on Friday evening, an agreement that puts Congress on track to avoid a weekend expiration of a key program. The legislation, which reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, has already passed the House and after passing the Senate will go to President Joe Biden for his signature after a prolonged congressional battle over access to Americans’ information. “We have good news for national security,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as he announced the deal. “Allowing FISA t ..read more

Conservatives have made it abundantly clear they detest Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to work with Democrats. To other Republicans, it’s a necessary evil — specifically because of those hardliner colleagues. Many centrist Republicans said on Friday that Johnson has been left with no other choice, given threats to his speakership and unwieldy demands for border security language that could never pass the Democratic-led Senate and President Joe Biden. “We're asking the impossible,” Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) said in an interview. “And that's not fair to Mike Johnson. It wasn't fair to Kevin ..read more

As the House nears a Saturday vote on a foreign aid plan that's driven a wedge within the fractious GOP, a Democratic worry is persisting: that they, and President Joe Biden, will pay a hefty price with their base if they don't change their approach to Israel aid. The recent back-and-forth of strikes between Israel and Iran, while it hiked pressure on Republicans to take up the foreign aid package, didn't exactly dissuade progressives from their leeriness of an unconditional extension of U.S. assistance for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As some Democrats see it, they have a moral ..read more

It’s not often the Senate whip finds himself at odds with his own party’s administration, yet the controversial surveillance bill has prompted that exact split — with only hours left until the law expires. The Biden administration is moving to crush an amendment from Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) that would prohibit access to American communications without a warrant. Durbin said this week that he will not be able to support reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s section 702 program, which allows warrantless surveillance of foreign targets, without changes. The p ..read more

A third Republican is now on board for ousting Speaker Mike Johnson: Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar. The conservative signed on to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-Ga.) proposal to remove Johnson on Friday after Democrats provided the necessary votes to start debate on a multi-part foreign aid plan, infuriating conservatives. Gosar follows Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in supporting Greene, though it's still not clear when she might force a vote on toppling Johnson. If she does, the speaker will need Democrats to help him keep the gavel — a precarious position for a GOP leader. In a press release explai ..read more

The House officially opened debate Friday on Speaker Mike Johnson’s multi-part foreign aid plan after Democrats stepped in to help overcome conservative defections. The House voted 316-94 to bring up the four-bill package, which includes aid for Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel, as well as GOP policy sweeteners. But underscoring deep intra-party frustrations with Johnson’s strategy, 55 Republicans voted against advancing the package — a once unheard-of GOP rebellion that has grown more common given their single-digit margin. Normally that would be enough to scuttle Johnson’s plan, but 165 Democrats ..read more

Speaker Mike Johnson's foreign aid package will advance to the floor, after Democrats on the Rules Committee stepped in to counter conservative defections. The contentious panel vote tees up the four-bill plan for floor consideration on aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as a fourth bill of related GOP policy priorities meant to entice otherwise skeptical Republicans to at least vote to allow debate on the package. The bundle still needs to clear a so-called rule vote on the House floor before lawmakers formally begin debate and move to votes on passage of the individual bills. Though ..read more

Party leaders are quietly negotiating how to bypass a conservative blockade and bring Speaker Mike Johnson’s four-part foreign aid package to the House floor, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Three Republicans on the powerful Rules Committee — Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Thomas Massie of Kentucky — are threatening to vote against the so-called rule as the panel meets Thursday, which would block the package before it reached the House floor if all Democrats also opposed it. Typically, the majority party is responsible for clearing the Rules ..read more

The Senate advanced a controversial surveillance bill on Thursday afternoon by a 67-32 vote, as leaders race to fight off attempts to change it that could result in a lapse over the weekend. The vote to break a filibuster on a law extending and reforming the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s section 702 authority sets up a crucial showdown before the Saturday expiration of the program. Critics of the authority, which allows warrantless surveillance of foreign targets, want major changes designed at making it much tougher to access American information that is swept up in the program. The ..read more

Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-Kan.) announced Thursday he'll finish his current term in the House but won't run for reelection this fall. "The busy schedule of serving in and running for Congress has taken a toll," he said in a statement. "The unrepeatable season of life we are in, where our kids are still young and at home, is something I want to be more present for." He called the current congressional dysfunction "distressing" but added "the vast majority of people I have served with are good and trying to do the right thing." He got to Congress in 2021 after toppling scandal-plagued former Rep. St ..read more