The House of Representatives is set to vote Wednesday on renewing a spy power that grants the Trump administration warrantless access to thousands of Americans’ communications.
While uniting against President Donald Trump on many fronts, Democrats are split on what to do over the domestic spying power — and the party’s leadership isn’t giving much guidance, according to a congressional notice obtained by The Intercept.
In the notice laying out leadership’s advice on bills up for a vote this week, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark simply explained that the relevant top committee leaders were split. House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Jim Himes supports a clean reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, while Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin wants further reforms.
Clark gave straight up-or-down recommendations on many other pieces of legislation, but not the spying law.
With leadership silent, progressive activists are trying to step into the void to pressure members. They say Trump’s disregard for the rule of law in his second term means that representatives should only vote for the law with reforms. Government officials have engaged a pattern of abuses at the Justice Department.
Centrists on two key committees, on the other hand, say that modest changes enacted in 2024 went far enough and Congress should give Trump the so-called “clean” reauthorization he has requested.
With Republicans themselves divided, the margin within the Democratic caucus could prove crucial.
Rather than advising members how to vote, however, Democratic leaders is stepping aside. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has said that he personally supports reforms but has not signaled that he will pressure his caucus. (Jeffries’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
I mean, I 100% support calling out the Dems when they do obviously morally questionable things. They also just did something good (blocking arms sales to Israel), and even though it didn’t pass (bc they’re the minority), they deserve to be acknowledged when they do the right thing. It certainly took them long enough, and honestly, I doubt they would have united if not for public pressure, and journalists pointing out the hypocrisy/questioning why wealthy donors often seem to have more sway over Dems than their own voters do.
Domestic surveillance is an issue even Republicans are divided on, and most Americans, regardless of party, are opposed to the government trampling on civil liberty in the name of “safety” and “patriotic duty.” Especially during an unjust forever war. We’ve seen this one before. We know how it ends.
The Patriot Act marked a very clear turning point for America. If you value democracy and civil liberty, expanding domestic surveillance power is a terrible idea. Even Trump opposed this when it was just a campaign issue, but now he’s suddenly in favor of it. Why?
This really should have been a no brainer issue for Dems to rally behind and support. Like this should be a major part of any 2028 presidential campaign. Given how many AI investors and other evil billionaires are now raining donations on to politicians in hopes of accessing the data the government collects or being contracted by the government to collect it, we should all be asking why the Dems didn’t take the ball and run with this one.