THE TOP

Happy Wednesday morning.

Republicans on both sides of the Capitol are struggling this morning: House Republicans on FISA and Senate Republicans on reconciliation.

The House Rules Committee voted along party lines late Tuesday night to move ahead with a clean, 18-month renewal of a key surveillance authority. FISA Section 702 is expiring on April 20.

The White House and Speaker Mike Johnson are pushing hard for the extension, with a floor fight set for today. It’s going to be tight.

Democrats on the Rules Committee blasted Republicans for considering the FISA measure under a closed rule with no amendments.

Democrats unsuccessfully sought to make in order an amendment from Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and other conservatives adding warrant requirements to the surveillance law. An identical proposal failed dramatically 212-212 in April 2024 during a prior FISA floor fight.

Three GOP members of the Rules Committee who supported the provision then — Republican Reps. Chip Roy (Texas), Ralph Norman (S.C.) and Morgan Griffith (Va.) — weren’t present for the committee vote after participating earlier in the hearing.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), ranking member of the Rules Committee. “This is wrong.”

So can the House pass this rule? There’s some buzz GOP leaders may try to amend the rule on the floor. We’ll see this afternoon.

If Republican leaders can’t pass the rule, Johnson needs an off ramp. We asked him Tuesday night if he’d be open to extending FISA for 12 months instead of 18 months. Johnson said he’s focused on reauthorizing the program and isn’t worried about the length of the authorization.

Johnson can try to bring this bill up under suspension of the rules, but Democrats would need to vote en masse for the measure. That seems extremely unlikely at this point.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, is leaning toward supporting a clean FISA extension after working with Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), the top Intelligence Committee Democrat. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, said he’s “undecided” but “deeply concerned” about giving President Donald Trump more power.

Some conservatives appear dug in against any clean FISA extension. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), chair of the House Freedom Caucus, predicted that “if it’s clean,” the rule will go down today. Harris said he had no plans to meet with Trump on the issue.

“I know the White House position. I disagree with it,” Harris said.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe — a former House member — will attend the GOP Conference meeting today to help sell the extension.

Reconciliation latest. Across the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is betting that his conference will eventually get behind a narrow reconciliation effort to fund ICE and Border Patrol by giving them no other choice.

Thune has Trump’s backing as he resists a push by many Senate Republicans to expand the bill’s scope, insisting this will over-complicate and slow down the process.

But a wide range of House Republicans — who are already conditioning re-opening the Department of Homeland Security on the Senate’s reconciliation progress — blasted Thune’s approach.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) warned that pots of money for ICE and Border Patrol “aren’t really popular things” with Americans.

“If you’re going to pass a reconciliation bill, it needs to be one that addresses the concerns of the American people, and affordability is the concern I hear more than anything,” Smith told us.

Other Republicans are skeptical that a third reconciliation effort for other GOP priorities will actually materialize, so they don’t want this opportunity to go to waste.

And some deficit hawks say they may want offsets for ICE and Border Patrol funding, although GOP leaders’ argument that appropriations bills are never paid for has been mostly convincing for these members.

Thune is already facing internal backlash from GOP senators along similar lines. Some Republican senators, such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), want to use reconciliation to combat the GOP’s increasingly grim outlook for the midterms.

This is what Thune has to navigate as he seeks to pass a budget resolution — the first step in the process — as soon as next week. That will require support from at least 50 of the 53 GOP senators.

Even if Senate Republicans can keep the budget blueprint “skinny,” Johnson will need to decide whether that’s enough to finally hold a vote on the Senate-passed bill to reopen the rest of DHS. It’s been two weeks since Johnson caved to Thune and said he’d move to pass the Senate bill. Johnson’s delay has left Senate GOP leaders dumbfounded.

So if Johnson’s conference isn’t satisfied with the Senate’s reconciliation path, that throws into question the rest of the department’s funding.

— Briana Reilly, Anthony Adragna, Andrew Desiderio, Laura Weiss and Jake Sherman

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