President Donald Trump wants Congress to sidestep internal debates and extend a key surveillance program — and he has made the demand directly to key Hill Republicans.
At issue is the foreign spy program known as Section 702, which is set to lapse on April 20. Lawmakers in both parties want to put new restrictions to prevent the intelligence community from searching program data for Americans without a warrant.
Trump has instead asked for a straight extension with no changes, according to Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton and three other senior lawmakers who were granted anonymity to discuss the private request.
“President Trump has requested a simple, clean extension and I support the commander-in-chief on this vital national-security decision,” Cotton (R-Ark.) said in a statement.
Trump recently told House Intelligence Committee Chair Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that he wanted a clean extension, according to a congressional aide familiar with the discussion.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Crawford told him this week Trump wants a straight extension.
“The chairman and a variety of other people have told me that the president is pushing [an] 18-month clean authorization,” Himes said.
Spokespeople for the White House, Johnson, Crawford and Jordan didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s backing for a clean extension comes as top White House staffers have been privately lobbying for a clean extension of at least 18 months, including top domestic policy adviser Stephen Miller. Some intelligence community allies have privately floated going even longer — up to three years, according to one GOP lawmaker granted anonymity to discuss private discussions with the administration.
Even with Trump’s private edict, a clean extension faces an uncertain path in the House, where a bipartisan coalition of privacy hawks have long demanded sweeping changes to the spy power. People familiar with the vote-counting effort don’t believe it can clear the two-thirds-majority bar for fast-track passage, and GOP lawmakers and senior aides are skeptical their party could unite behind a necessary procedural measure to put it on the floor.
Himes said that while Trump’s vote of confidence could help rally Republicans, it could scare off some Democrats.
“We now have a president who has shown disdain for the law, disdain for the Congress, and an awful lot of my Democrats are going to point that out and say, ‘Hey, I supported this when we actually had a president who supported the law — tell me again why I should support it now,’” he said.
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