House readies for a vote on warrantless spy powers. Last night, GOP leaders in the House cleared the way for a floor vote on an 18-month clean extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without additional privacy protections some Republicans had wanted.
Section 702 of FISA allows the government to obtain the communications of foreign surveillance targets without needing to go to a judge to get a traditional warrant. This section of the law has long been controversial, as the government has wide discretion to decide which foreigners it wants to put under surveillance, and Americans’ communications are collected as part of this surveillance.
The government “routinely searches through [Section 702] data to find Americans’ phone calls, text messages, and emails,” notes the Brennan Center for Justice in a recent explainer. “This practice is a bait and switch that drives a gaping hole through the protections of the Fourth Amendment and FISA.”
Section 702 of FISA will expire this coming Monday if Congress does not renew it. President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R–La.), support a “clean” Section 702 extension, with no changes to the program.
But some Republican members of Congress are demanding additional privacy protections, including a requirement that the government obtain a warrant before accessing Americans’ data, before reauthorizing the program.
Even so, two Republican Section 702 critics, Reps. Ralph Norman (R–S.C.) and Chip Roy (R–Texas), allowed a clean extension to pass through the House Rules Committee, of which they are both members, last night, reports Politico.
As The Hill notes this morning, lots of Republicans have flip-flopped on FISA reform.
That includes President Trump, who urged lawmakers to “KILL FISA” in 2024. Now he wants an extension of the law without any changes.
On the other hand, Democrats who voted to extend Section 702 in 2024, and helped kill amendments that added a warrant requirement to the law, are now opposing reauthorization. They say the law is much too dangerous in the hands of Donald Trump.
With Republicans’ razor-thin margins in the House, Democratic opposition and a few GOP defectors could kill a Section 702 extension.
A more principled commitment to civil liberties among lawmakers, regardless of who the president is, would relieve Americans of having to depend on that razor-thin majority collapsing in order to reclaim their Fourth Amendment rights.
Hochul hoses holiday house havers. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has floated the idea of an additional tax on second homes worth over $5 million to help plug New York City’s budget gap, reports The New York Times.
New York City is currently facing a $5.4 billion budget gap, which its new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, wants to close with additional taxes on wealthy individuals and large corporations. Those taxes, however, require approval from the state. Some state lawmakers, and Hochul herself, oppose Mamdani’s largest revenue-raising ideas, like a proposed income tax hike.
Mamdani, for his part, has threatened a massive property tax hike if the state doesn’t authorize more local taxes or release more financial aid to the city.
Hochul’s proposed second home tax can be seen as a compromise measure that gives the city some of the revenue it wants via a very narrow tax on a group of wealthy property owners who may well live in New York part time.
Politically, such a tax is likely a lot more viable than a massive, broadband property tax hike. Even so, the Times notes that similar proposals have been floated and defeated in recent years.
Same time next year. If you think taxes are theft, it doesn’t matter if New York is hiking taxes on second homes or sixth homes. It’s all unjustified.
From a more practical perspective, a narrow tax on high-value second homes is not going to solve New York City’s budget problems. Taxes with such narrow bases often pull in a lot less revenue than policymakers imagine. Even under Hochul’s estimated revenue haul, a second home tax would close only about 10 percent of New York City’s budget gap.
The question then becomes what happens next year. New York City’s spending continues to grow year over year. As federal pandemic aid ends and tax revenues from New York’s already steeply progressive tax system fall, the city’s budget gap has grown larger and larger each year. It’s projected to continue to grow.
Mamdani also wants a rash of new spending programs. The upshot is the state can tax second homes this year, bring in the whole $500 million it’s hoping for, and then have to find another group of wealthy people to soak next year, and the year after that.
Scenes from Washington, D.C.: In a very rare occurrence indeed, the fountain at Dupont Circle, just a few blocks from the Reason office, actually has water in it.
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