House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is facing backlash from members of his party after he opposed an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that failed on the House floor in a tie vote.
The amendment, which would have required the government to obtain a warrant to query the data of people caught up in foreign surveillance, failed to attract the needed votes to pass on Friday, with the chamber deadlocking 212-212. In the event of a tie, an amendment on the House floor fails, per chamber rules.
The outcome angered several House Republicans who argued Johnson could have tipped the scales had he joined a bipartisan coalition of privacy hawks.
“This is a sad day for America,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said in a post on X. “The Speaker doesn’t always vote in the House, but he was the tie breaker today. He voted against warrants.”
The warrant requirements created a divide within the Republican conference, as national security proponents on the House Intelligence Committee opposed them, and privacy advocates on the House Judiciary Committee pushed for adding the provision into the bill text.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who sponsored the warrant requirement amendment, blasted the 86 Republicans who voted down the provision.
“86 Republicans voted with Joe Biden and the Uniparty to allow the FBI to continue spying on Americans without a warrant,” Biggs said in a post to X. “The Swamp is deep.”
The House GOP suffered several setbacks leading up to final passage of the larger bill. Two days earlier, 19 Republicans joined all Democrats in voting down a procedural vote, effectively putting the House at a standstill until a new version of the text was negotiated.
To appease holdouts on FISA, GOP leaders agreed to a two-year expiration and a stand-alone vote on a privacy amendment from Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH). Ahead of the FISA vote, Davidson had expressed his disappointment over Johnson’s switch in support regarding the warrant requirement.
“When he became speaker, the Intel Committee has coerced him to go along with the Intel viewpoint,” Davidson said. “So now the speaker is working to prevent the warrant requirement from passing and has pulled the Fourth Amendment Not For Sale from consideration.”
“So it’s like he’s a different person,” Davidson added.
After Friday’s vote, members had plenty to say about Johnson’s decision to vote down the warrant requirement. Typically, speakers do not participate in debate and only vote on the most significant bills. However, some GOP lawmakers considered his decision to vote against privacy hawks a betrayal.
“A Republican Speaker voting against warrant requirements for American citizens after this very process was blatantly abused to spy on @realDonaldTrump and his campaign is beyond the pale,” Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) said in a post on X.
Johnson’s office confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the speaker was not the last member to vote on the warrant requirement despite members calling him a tiebreaker. However, it may not matter to Republicans such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who introduced a motion to vacate Johnson over the latest spending deal.
Greene met with Johnson on Wednesday, telling reporters that how he handled the FISA process and funding for Ukraine would determine how she’d move forward with the motion to vacate.
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Following the FISA vote, Greene compared Johnson to Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and claimed his vote on FISA earned her more support to oust him.
Johnson’s “last vote there, being the vote that took down the warrant amendment, certainly brought other members over to my side,” Greene told reporters.