Top Intelligence Democrat Says GOP Should Renew Spy Program Before Democrats Take Over

On Wednesday, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jim Himes (D–Conn.), urged Republicans to “take the win” and renew President Donald Trump’s warrantless mass surveillance powers during the lame duck session. 

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)—a provision used by US intelligence agencies to spy on the electronic communications of thousands of people outside the United States without a warrant—lapsed in June. Privacy advocates and civil libertarians have long decried the law as unconstitutional, and earlier this year, seven Republicans defied Trump and voted against renewing it. 

But Himes, an intelligence hawk, is one of Section 702’s most vocal defenders—even if that means handing warrantless spying powers to the man he once called a “dictator.” With Democrats set to take control of the House and Senate, Himes is suggesting that his Republican colleagues “get this thing done in the lame-duck because it’s, you know, it’s going to be a very different 702 that gets reauthorized in the first quarter of next year,” as The Hill reported.

Trump opposed Section 702 during the Biden administration, but now that he’s back in office, he thinks the program is crucial for national security. And while congressional support for the program has largely hewed to partisan lines, Himes sounds more at ease with warrantless surveillance than most of his Democratic colleagues. He has called Section 702, even under the Trump administration, the country’s “most rigorously overseen” surveillance program and told WIRED he’s seen “zero evidence of abuse.” (Last year, the FBI closed an office that monitored for Section 702 abuses.) In April, Himes was the sole member of his state’s congressional delegation to back the program’s renewal, objecting only when Trump briefly placed Federal Housing Finance Agency hatchetman Bill Pulte in charge of national intelligence.

Come January, Himes will take the reins as chair of the House Intelligence Committee. In Wednesday interviews with The New York Times and The Washington Post, he set out his agenda for “aggressive” oversight of the Trump administration’s intelligence activities, including scrutinizing the CIA’s covert overseas operations. Himes also told reporters that the committee plans to “examine donations” made by defense contractors to Trump construction projects and “investigate whether intelligence analysts have been pressured to write reports that align with the objectives of senior officials in the Trump administration.” 

But as Himes positions himself as a watchdog, civil liberties groups are condemning his final-hour effort to renew Section 702. On Thursday, a coalition including Demand Progress, the American Civil Liberties Union, and others sent a letter urging congressional leaders to keep FISA reauthorization off the table until the next Congress, noting that Section 702 has been used in recent years to spy on protesters, elected officials, and journalists.

“Americans across the political spectrum have good reason to distrust unchecked executive branch surveillance power,” the letter states. “No member of Congress knows who will occupy the White House in the years ahead, and constitutional protections should not depend on who is president.”

“Jim Himes has betrayed his own party and the American people,” Demand Progress senior policy advisor Hajar Hammado said in a statement. “After seeing a blowout election where Americans overwhelmingly rejected Trump and sided with the Democrats, Himes’s first instinct was to urge Republicans to use the little time they have left to hand Donald Trump and Stephen Miller the mass surveillance powers that they’re asking for.”