Report: Johnson to Vote Against FISA Warrant Requirement

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House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to oppose a measure that would require the government to obtain warrants for surveilling emails, phone calls, and texts under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is set to expire on April 19, The Washington Times reported Tuesday.

Positioned between privacy advocates and national security proponents in Congress, Johnson’s stance comes as the House prepares to vote on a FISA reauthorization bill that, as it stands, lacks a warrant requirement, a provision the FBI opposes.

While Johnson is against the warrant requirement, he reportedly will not actively dissuade fellow lawmakers from supporting such amendments during the bill’s floor debate.

The reauthorization of Section 702, which allows for the collection of electronic communications from foreigners abroad — and subsequently Americans’ data, making it, as one court said a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue” — has reignited debates over privacy versus security, especially given past instances of FBI overreach in surveilling Americans without warrants.

The Washington Times did not hear back from Johnson. Newsmax has reached out.

During the 2016 election, the FBI used a FISA to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, according to special counsel John Durham’s report.

The Department of Justice later admitted in 2020, according to a FISC document, that “if not earlier, there was insufficient predication to establish probable cause to believe that [Carter] Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power.”