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Late last year, Congress elected to punt the issue of FISA renewal – the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that was designed to surveil terrorists in foreign countries, and has since been horrendously abused by the US intelligence community to target Americans – including former President Donald Trump.

Now, they have 10 days to go to come up with a permanent replacement. To that end, House Speaker Mike Johnson put forth "RISAA" – a bill backed by Ohio Rep. Mike Turner and the intelligence committee, and just passed through the House Rules Committee – where a final floor vote will likely take place on Thursday.

Privacy hawks, however, point out that it's a steaming pile of shit with no meaningful language to protect privacy rights – except for members of Congress, who gave themselves a carve out which requires the FBI to notify and seek consent from Congress before spying on them.

What's more, critics say the RISAA essentially codifies surveillance abuses into law.

Under Section 702 of the FISA, the government is authorized to gather foreigners' communications if they have been flagged in connection with national security matters. The communications can be gathered even if the target was speaking about, or with, Americans.

"Speaker of the House Mike Johnson claims that RISAA reflects a compromise," reads a joint statement from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Brennan Center for Justice and Freedomworks. "In reality, this bill is not a ‘compromise,’ and its 56 ‘reforms’ codify the unacceptable status quo."

The bill has also caused a rift within the Republican party over privacy rights. As the Daily Caller's Reagan Reese notes:

"It’s delicate right now. The place is about to combust," one GOP source told the Caller on Monday.

According to FreedomWorks, "Of the 56 RISAA “reforms” Speaker Johnson highlights, at least 13 either codify existing practice and procedures, meaning they make NO CHANGES to the warrantless surveillance status quo, or they actively weaken existing protections."

"I don’t think [RISAA goes far enough] I think that these are a lot of papered over reforms that FBI was doing internally, or were claiming that they’re doing internally," Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) told the Caller.

"RISAA doesn’t go nearly far enough in protecting Americans from illegal spying by their own government. It is a sham reform, and House Republicans should not vote for any FISA reauthorization that lacks a warrant requirement. Speaker Johnson and the GOP majority have a real opportunity to end this madness, and they should take it," Rep. Mike Lee told the outlet as well.

DC journalist Jim Bovard told the Caller: "Any member of Congress who supports extending FISA without radical reforms should receive a ‘Deep State-approved’ logo to burnish for their reelection campaign," adding "If Congress cannot yank in the reins on the FBI and NSA after millions of confirmed violations of Americans’ rights, only a fool would expect Congress to ever give a damn about the Constitution."

Digging deeper is Brennan Center for Justice co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program, Elizabeeth Goitein, who wrote on X:

Read the rest of the report here…