Oh, the panic is rising on Capitol Hill.
Congress has just three days to “save” FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), so sayeth the proponents of the surveillance state.
More specifically, Section 702 of FISA is set to die at midnight Friday. While opponents of the congressional license to spy on Americans would gladly dance on Section 702’s grave, some say the so-called “must-pass” legislation could save the SAVE America Act — the critical election integrity package that most Americans love and Democrats loathe.
The Election Transparency Initiative, a national advocate for election integrity, is calling on Congress to attach the legislation to the FISA Reauthorization.
“Congress says FISA protects America’s security. The SAVE Act protects America’s elections. Congress is moving one because it says the stakes are too high to ignore. The same standard should apply to the other,” Ken Cuccinelli, National Chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative, said Tuesday in a press release.
‘Hold the Senate Hostage’
The SAVE Act, which requires documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to cast a ballot in a U.S. election, has hit a wall in the Senate after Republicans passed it multiple times in the House. Senate Democrats, who recoil from election integrity like vampires from sunlight, have the zombie filibuster to keep the bill from moving to a vote without the burden of debate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., insists he doesn’t have the votes in his conference to attempt a talking filibuster, which would force Democrats to continuously debate the legislation to keep it from reaching a simple-majority vote.
But, as Cuccinelli notes, there are a lot of Republicans and Democrats who are enamored of the surveillance state. They ache over the idea that the intelligence community will lose its sweeping ability to spy on Americans. They see renewing Section 702 of FISA an absolute must-pass.
“Must-pass really doesn’t mean it must pass, but congress feels like it must pass,” Cuccinelli, the former attorney general of Virginia, told me Tuesday in an interview on the Vicki McKenna Show. “And you can fully expect congress to try to rush through this week.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have warned of “devastating” consequences if Congress fails to pass the FISA reauthorization. In late April, the House overwhelmingly voted (235-191) to renew Section 702, with 42 Democrats voting with Republicans.
Cuccinelli said the House needs to “hold the Senate hostage,” to decline to pass FISA without the SAVE America Act.
“Let them all freak out,” he said. “We went three weeks without FISA coverage in 2015.”
But Democrats are already throwing a hissy fit over President Donald Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting national intelligence director. Senate Dems and seven Republicans last week blocked an extension of the surveillance tool, with outgoing Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., calling on Trump to remove Pulte.
“Letting FISA lapse would reflect a nation paralyzed by hyper-partisanship and dysfunction. POTUS can help by canceling plans to put Bill Pulte as Acting DNI,” Bacon wrote on X, apparently not seeing the nakedly partisan efforts by Democrats to nix a Trump pick.
‘Banana Republic Stuff’
Senate Republicans attempted to attach the SAVE America Act to the reconciliation bill that will fully fund federal immigration law enforcement. Four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins, Maine, Mitch McConnell, Ky., Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, and Thom Tillis, N.C. — voted with Democrats to kill the election integrity amendment.
“Voter ID is the most popular thing out there,” Sen. Josh Hawley told Fox News Digital. “There’s reason for that. People want their elections to be safe, they want them to be fair. And to me, you can’t explain it to me, why you wouldn’t vote for voter ID. I just don’t understand it.”
It’s actually pretty easy to understand. Election integrity costs Democrats elections. California has eschewed photo ID, clean voter rolls and basic identification standards on its ubiquitous mail-in ballots. California is effectively a one-party state, showing off why that is in the suspect Los Angeles mayoral race in particular.
“This is Banana Republic stuff,” Cuccinelli said. “We’re watching South American nations running elections much more smoothly than California, with much more reliability. And that should embarrass every American. It would be nice if it embarrassed every Californian enough to fix it, but not yet.”
It’s Exhibit A why the Senate must do whatever it can to put the SAVE America Act on Trump’s desk. The intelligence community’s sacred cow of extended surveillance power could be the vehicle, Cuccinelli said.
“We do know how Congress has treated FISA in the past, like some holy relic that must be handed down,” he said. “How about we get our holy relic?”
Cuccinelli urged voters to call their members of congress and demand they attach the SAVE America Act to Section 702 renewal.
