Progressives oppose funding bill over surveillance authority

 A handful of prominent progressives in the House on Tuesday said they opposed a measure to put off an impending government shutdown over a provision that would extend government surveillance authorities for three months.

Overall, the lawmakers’ small revolt did not kill the continuing resolution (CR) – it passed 231-192 and only 10 Democrats voted against it. But Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) all pushed their colleagues to vote “no” on the CR throughout the day, claiming they do not believe the Trump administration should be allowed to surveil U.S. citizens for another three months.

“I cannot in good conscience vote in favor of a CR that reauthorizes unconstitutional mass surveillance authorities, especially under a President who has retweeted images of his opponents jailed and suggests anyone who disagrees with him is a criminal,” Tlaib said in a statement to The Hill.

The details: The last-minute addition to the CR would give Congress 90 more days to debate whether it wants to reauthorize several government surveillance provisions first enacted under the controversial Patriot Act. One of those provisions, known as Section 215, enables the government to access phone records on millions of Americans every year during terrorism investigations.

The National Security Agency (NSA) revealed earlier this year that it shuttered the phone records program amid enormous technical difficulties.

Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), who recently raised concerns about reauthorizing Section 215, also voted against the CR alongside Omar, Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib.

The provision extending Section 215 was added to the CR late on Monday, Ocasio-Cortez told The Hill, leaving lawmakers with little time to weigh in on whether they want to extend the surveillance authorities.

A coalition of civil liberties and progressive groups on Tuesday sent a letter urging lawmakers to oppose the CR, writing, “Extending these authorities for any period of time absent major reform, as the Continuing Resolution [CR] does, reflects an abandonment of Congress’s most basic responsibilities.”

Crunch time: But several progressives who signed onto Tlaib’s previous letter told The Hill that they supported the CR because it was their only option to ensure the government doesn’t shut down this week.

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) in a statement said, “Although I do have serious concerns with reauthorizing Section 215, we must focus on the bigger picture here.  Therefore, I plan to vote yes on today’s CR in order to keep the government open and ensure that my constituents continue to receive their Social Security benefits and have access to the vital services they require like community health centers.”

“I’m supporting [the CR],” Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who signed the previous letter, told The Hill. “We’re taking it in its entirety, and hopefully in three months, we’ll get a chance to correct some of that. But right now, I don’t see another option.”