GOP leaders nix Trump plan to pair SAVE America Act with spy law extension

GOP congressional leaders will not attach the SAVE America Act to legislation reauthorizing an expired foreign surveillance authority, as President Trump demanded.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that it is not realistic to link the two unrelated issues as Republicans work to quickly renew the recently expired Section 702 of the Foreign Surveillance Act, a law authorizing the government to spy on foreign targets’ communications without a warrant.

“I certainly would hope that if we can get FISA off the floor that he would sign it,” Mr. Thune told reporters. “It’s that important.”

Mr. Trump has said he would only support the FISA renewal if it contains his priority election integrity bill.

“The Dumocrats want FISA because that’s what they used to go after me for three years during my First Term!” he wrote on social media. “I’m against FISA if it doesn’t come with The Save America Act (Full version!) firmly attached to it.”

Mr. Thune said he has not talked to the president since his social media posts and he does not recall Mr. Trump bringing up the SAVE America Act in their previous conversations about FISA.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said in a Fox News interview on Sunday that reauthorizing FISA requires 60 votes in the Senate to clear a filibuster and he hopes “Democrats will put their shenanigans aside” to do so.

Extending the spy law does not meet the requirements for inclusion in a filibuster-proof budget reconciliation package, so Republicans cannot act on their own.

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However, Mr. Johnson is planning to include at least some pieces of the SAVE America Act in a new reconciliation bill Republicans are working on assembling after enacting their second one in Congress last week.

“I’m going to attach it to the reconciliation 3.0 bill, and I’ve told the president we’re going to work really hard to make sure that gets to his desk,” the speaker said.

Mr. Johnson lamented the need to use the party-line budget reconciliation process, given that voter ID is a “90/10 issue in public opinion polling.”

“As shocking as it is, Democrats are against anything with regard to commonsense election security,” he said. “All that bill does on its face, the current version, is it requires proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID when you show up to do so. That’s common sense.”

The “current version” of the SAVE America Act that the speaker referenced passed the House but stalled in the Senate amid a Democratic filibuster.

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The “full version” Mr. Trump is demanding would also ban states from automatically sending out mail-in ballots to all registered voters and block biological men from playing in women’s sports and “transgender mutilation” procedures on children.

That version lacks enough GOP support to pass either chamber, let alone clear a filibuster in the Senate.

Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer of New York called the SAVE America Act “the most vicious piece of anti-voting rights legislation Trump has ever come up with” and said the president’s push to attach it to a FISA reauthorization is “deeply reckless.”

“Once again, Trump proves he has no problem undermining Americans’ national security if he thinks it will help him politically,” Mr. Schumer said.

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Senate Democrats are filibustering both short- and long-term extensions of FISA in opposition to Mr. Trump tapping William J. Pulte to serve as acting director of national intelligence effective this Friday.

Mr.  Trump has nominated Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, to serve as the permanent DNI.

Mr. Clayton’s confirmation hearing is on Wednesday. Mr. Thune said “it would be nice” if the Senate could vote to confirm him by the end of the week, but that would require consent from all 100 senators to speed up the voting process.

Quick Senate confirmation of Mr. Clayton could prevent Mr. Pulte from serving in the DNI role.

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However, Mr. Trump complained in one of his social media posts that some Democrats are opposed to renewing FISA regardless, so he has no incentive to stop Mr. Pulte from going to DNI.

Democrats say they oppose Mr. Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director, serving as DNI because he lacks national security experience and used confidential mortgage information to target the president’s political enemies.

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Lindsey McPherson

lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com

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