House Republican lawmakers were embroiled in a heated debate after a group of 19 GOP colleagues blocked the advancement of a bill to renew a crucial surveillance tool of the federal government. The bill in question aimed to reform and renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a tool that allows the government to surveil non-Americans on foreign soil with suspected terror links without a warrant.
The failure of the procedural vote on the bill sparked frustration among GOP members, with some accusing their colleagues of turning control over to the minority party by not supporting the majority's rules and procedures. Despite the bill containing 56 major reforms to FISA 702, conservative privacy hawks objected to the exclusion of an amendment requiring warrants for the purchase of U.S. citizens' data from third-party data brokers.
