Rand Paul was on with Lou Dobbs last night where he explained that Trump will not accept a clean reauthorization of the Patriot Act without significant FISA reform:
Reform FISA: Senator @RandPaul says @POTUS will not sign a clean authorization of the Patriot Act unless we reform FISA. #MAGA #AmericaFirst #Dobbs pic.twitter.com/cSd1yavfiX
— Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) March 4, 2020
Here’s more from The Hill:
President Trump told a group of Republicans on Tuesday that he will not support extending soon-to-expire intelligence programs without changes to the surveillance court.
Trump met with Attorney General William Barr and several GOP lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), amid a deadlock over how to deal with expiring provisions of the USA Freedom Act.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told reporters that Trump “pushed back very vigorously” on a plan pitched by Barr to pass a clean extension of the expiring intelligence programs plan while using his own rulemaking authority to make changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court.
“It was a spirited discussion. The president made it exceedingly clear that he will not accept a clean reauthorization…without real reform,” Paul told reporters after the meeting.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who also attended the meeting, noted in a Facebook post that lawmakers made the pitch to Trump that the surveillance court needs to be reformed as part of the reauthorization, and that Trump agreed with them.
“I’ve proposed a series of amendments to FISA and explained that I’m willing to vote to reauthorize the expiring provisions but only if we pass some of these reforms, only if we make it more difficult for the government to use these things against American citizens,” Lee added in a video posted to Facebook.
Two GOP aides confirmed that Trump told lawmakers he would not support extending the USA Freedom Act provisions without broader FISA reforms.
Other attendees at the meeting were GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), Mark Meadows (N.C.), Doug Collins (Ga.) and GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Richard Burr (N.C.).
Congress has until March 15 to extend the three USA Freedom Act provisions that deal with roving wiretaps, lone wolf surveillance and a controversial phone records program that allows the government to request metadata.
McConnell supports a short-term extension of the bill if they can’t agree on reforms:
Barr and McConnell pitched the idea of a clean extension of the provisions during the meeting, three sources told The Hill.
McConnell made a similar pitch during a press conference earlier Tuesday, while telling reporters he would support a short-term extension if Congress couldn’t reach a larger deal by the deadline.
“My own preference is to extend these three or four expiring authorities … but there are differences among my members and among the Democrats on the way forward. Whether we can resolve those and pass new legislation is unclear. If we’re unable to resolve our differences, my preference would be for another extension,” McConnell said.
Rand Paul did suggest Trump could sign a very short-term extension with the promise of reform:
Congress previously passed a 90-day extension of the programs in a December spending bill. Paul, on Tuesday night, wouldn’t rule out that Trump could support a weeks-long stopgap to buy more time to craft a deal on larger surveillance reforms.
Lawmakers have floated extensions ranging from two months to after the November election and potentially to 2022. Paul noted an idea “specifically talked about,” and rejected during the White House meeting, was kicking it until after the November election.
“I think that if there was something, if there were something very, very short term with the promise that a reform were coming, the president might” sign that, Paul said. “But there’s not going to be a long term, and by long term I mean anything more than a couple of weeks that the president would sign.”
I could see a two week extension for negotiations to continue. But Trump really does have a stake in this FISA reform considering his campaign was the target of FISA abuses at the FBI. I can’t imagine he’s going to budge very much on this issue.