SPY DEBATE GETS A DIAL TONE Another day, another headache for Speaker Mike Johnson. This time, it’s deep divisions within his own party that forced him to scrap his plan to bring legislation reauthorizing controversial spy powers to the floor — the second time he’s face-planted on this particular tripwire. The debate over how to reauthorize Section 702, a surveillance authority meant to target foreigners but that has come under fire for its ability to sweep in Americans’ information, has been a particularly sore point for Johnson’s speakership. It has pitted his conference’s national security hawks against its civil libertarians on a sensitive, must-pass bill. And while the many corners of the House don’t agree on much, we’ve heard a similar kvetch from basically all of them: Johnson’s strategy on this issue. “The one universal consensus — left, right, hawk, dove, reformer — is that Johnson has no idea what he is doing,” one congressional aide told us. Even after we scooped that Johnson wanted to bring a bill to the floor this week, another congressional aide described the bill as being constantly renegotiated, adding: “There’s nobody making a decision. The speaker won’t make a decision.” The cancellation of this week’s surveillance vote — and the failure Wednesday evening of another leadership-backed rule — added to the growing list of setbacks for Johnson inflicted by his own members. It all has underscored that the speaker, with a three-vote (and shrinking) majority, can’t reliably wield the core power of the speakership — putting your priorities on the floor. Reminder: Johnson first tried to address Section 702 last year only to have deep divisions within his own ranks scuttle his plans to bring the issue to the floor. His allies argue that, this time around, he’s doing exactly what his detractors asked him to do at the time: Pick a bill, and then let the House fight it out over amendments on the floor. That hardly stopped his members on both sides of the conference from airing their grievances. “I’ve been disappointed with the whole process,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), a member of the civil libertarian bloc, told Anthony just after the speaker’s announcement. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), an Intelligence Committee member, added that “I’m frustrated that we’re all of the sudden trying to create a FISA showdown this week” and accused the speaker of making changes to the underlying bill. The frustrations aren’t just with Johnson. Aides we’ve spoken to over the last week complained about having to constantly renegotiate the bill, even on points they had agreed to as part of a leadership-blessed working group, at times due to disagreements between lawmakers on the same side of the debate. But Johnson’s decision to defer action — and avoid what could have been another embarrassing floor failure — is exactly what some of his right flank explicitly asked him not to do as an April 19 deadline inches closer. “It’s no fun watching a team whose best play is the punt,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said. — Jordain Carney, with an assist from Anthony Adragna
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