Jordan pushes for warrant requirements in potential FISA reform

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Tuesday indicated that talks over prospective reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) were facing ongoing disagreements about the inclusion of a warrant requirement.

The House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees last year introduced competing proposals last year to reform FISA's section 702, which allows for the warrantless surveillance of foreigners abroad. The Judiciary panel had sought to include a warrant requirement, whereas the Intelligence panel's version pursued more modest reforms. House leadership ultimately pulled both proposals and the reform debate is ongoing.

Jordan remained bullish on the prospect of finalizing a reform bill this year, saying on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show that "[w]e'll get some reform, I think," though he remained skeptical that the final product would meet with his own approval.

"[T]he key is, will we get the big reform, which is the warrant requirement, which is what we've been pushing for, members of the Judiciary Committee," said Jordan. "And as you know, we had a strong bipartisan vote come out of committee, that ... had the warrant requirement in there. So if they're going to go search, what I call this giant haystack of information, and they're going to use John Solomon's email address, or John Solomon's phone number, or any American citizen's number, identifiers, they simply have to go get a warrant from a court and we've even said it can be the FISA court, but there needs to be a warrant requirement."

"And that's the hang-up right now. There are lots of members who are nervous about that," he continued. "But there's a bunch of members who know that it's the right thing to do. And let's hope that that gets into final legislation. That's what we're pushing for. And if that gets in, I think it's ... a reform worth voting for. If it doesn't, I think it's probably not."

Section 702 has come under scrutiny due to the potential for surveillance efforts to gather materials on Americans while spying on foreigners. It further permits the compilation of an intelligence database, which includes American information. Court records from last year, however, revealed that the FBI had improperly accessed the database more than 278,000 times since its creation.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.