Post #2938565

2026-04-17 15:41 UTC

Here's coverage of the FISA drama last night. The articles largely focus on Republican dysfunction, and I can certainly see why ... still it's also worth highlighting what a great job civil society orgs like Free Press, CDT, Fight for the Future, and Indivisible -- and the "tripartite caucus" letter (from the chairs of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, the and the Congressional Progressive Caucus) -- did at convincing Dems to almost completely hold the line despite the pressure for reauth from pro-surveilance Dems like Jim Hines. To start with, here's Dell Cameron in Wired -- my go-to reporter on this issue. https://www.wired.com/story/republican-mutiny-sinks-trumps-push-to-extend-warrantless-surveillance/

Replies (2)

@thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange 2026-04-17 15:44

Punchbowl News has an unpaywalled story on FISA, with more specifics on the R's who voted against it, and some great quotes. For example: "Led by Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), top Democrat on the Rules Committee, Democrats blasted Johnson and Republican leaders for the proposed five-year FISA extension. After hours of private GOP-only meetings trying to broker a deal, Republican leaders had suddenly announced they were ready to vote. But some of the proposed FISA changes were hand-written into the bill text: “Does anybody actually know what the hell is in this thing?” McGovern complained. “This is too damn important to do it this way,” McGovern added. “Your own members don’t know what the hell you’re doing … This process is embarrassing. This majority is incompetent.” Embarassing indeed (although it's worth highlighting that the Dems have also done ridiculously sleazy garbage with FISA reauthorization over the years). https://punchbowl.news/article/washington/fisa-flop/

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@ophiocephalic@kolektiva.social 2026-04-17 19:53

@thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange > Trump hosted Freedom Caucus holdouts at the White House on Tuesday, trying to close the deal. Democrats, meanwhile, were briefed Monday by two former senior Biden officials urging them to back the extension, according to a person familiar with both events. Biden being still shitty and mediocre "from beyond the grave"

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