US House could vote Thursday on surveillance bill, Republican lawmaker says

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Representative French Hill (R-AR) walks to a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., February 7, 2023. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives could vote again on controversial surveillance legislation on Thursday, Representative French Hill said, a day after an initial attempt failed in the Republican-controlled chamber.

A modest overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, foundered in the House on Wednesday after Democratic and Republican critics, including Donald Trump, said it gave the government too much power to spy on American citizens.

“What I’ve been told is that we’re going to do the same thing we were doing yesterday, today,” Hill, a Republican who sits on the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, told Reuters.

He spoke hours after House Speaker Mike Johnson said that Republican leaders “have a plan” to move forward with legislation.

At issue are elements of FISA that allow law enforcement to scan vast mountains of data scooped up by U.S. intelligence without first getting approval from a judge.

Several House Republicans said the House might vote to extend the surveillance authority by two years, rather than five, as the legislation that failed on Wednesday would have done.

Republican Representative Eric Burlison told Reuters that a two-year bill would give Trump a chance to address FISA as president, if he wins the White House in November.

“Let’s give the next person that’s elected president a chance to weigh in,” the Missouri Republican said.

(Reporting by David Morgan; writing by Paul Grant; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Chizu Nomiyama)