House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) yanked a vote scheduled for Wednesday night on a bill reauthorizing lapsed surveillance programs after opposition from Republicans and progressives made it unclear if it could pass.
“Members are advised that votes are no longer expected in the House tonight,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s (D-Md.) office announced shortly after 9:30 p.m.
A Democratic aide confirmed that there would be “no further votes” in the House on Wednesday.
The decision to pull the vote comes after House Democratic leadership vowed on Wednesday to give the legislation a vote and worked furiously behind the scenes to try to shore up support for the bill.
But the fate of the bill remained in doubt going into Wednesday evening. House Democratic leadership delayed starting debate over the bill, instead bringing up unrelated, noncontroversial bills. The chamber then went into three 15-minute breaks as discussions continued off the floor.
A decision on the vote was delayed multiple times as House leadership held heated discussions over putting up the bill that could very well fail. While Pelosi advocated for pulling the bill to regroup, Hoyer pushed for the vote to be conducted Wednesday night, a source with knowledge of the situation told The Hill.
A source familiar told The Hill that Pelosi made the decision to pull the vote after her office spoke with the White House legislative affairs office.
It wasn’t immediately clear when, or if, Pelosi would bring the bill up for a vote. The House will be in session on Thursday and the legislation is listed for "possible consideration." She had floated earlier Wednesday that if the Senate-amended bill could not pass the House, she would try to send back an initial version that passed the House in March, but did not make an announcement on Wednesday night regarding her plans.
The pivot Wednesday caps off an uncertain 24 hours for the legislation after President Trump on Tuesday night urged Republicans to oppose the measure. The bill reauthorizes three surveillance programs under the USA Freedom Act, a 2015 intelligence reform law, and makes some changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court.
Headaches for Pelosi continued to pile up on Wednesday as House GOP leadership announced it would oppose the bill and urge Republicans to vote against it, even though more than 120 supported the initial bill in March.
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Last Edited by LJS on 05/28/2020 09:28 AM
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