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mike johnson
Johnson Delays FISA Vote Amid Bipartisan Push for 'Major, Necessary' Privacy Reforms
"Republicans, Democrats, and independents all overwhelmingly want Congress to take serious action to protect privacy—in particular against AI and data brokers," said one campaigner.
Mar 20, 2026
With just a month until a key Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act spying power expires, US House Speaker Mike Johnson was planning to try to push through reauthorization legislation next week, but the Louisiana Republican leader is now reportedly delaying the vote while "still dealing with a dozen or so Republican members who want reforms."
Privacy advocates and lawmakers across the political spectrum have long called for reforms to FISA's Section 702, which empowers the US government to surveil electronic communications of noncitizens located outside the United States to acquire foreign intelligence information, without a warrant.
Citing three unnamed sources familiar with discussions in the House of Representatives, Politico reported Friday that "with a GOP hard-liner revolt over warrantless surveillance threatening to tank the legislation," Johnson "will instead work through the remaining issues over the upcoming two-week recess and try to put the extension on the floor the week of April 14."
Welcoming the development, Demand Progress executive director Sean Vitka said in a statement that "Speaker Johnson is backing away from his plan to ram through a FISA reauthorization vote next week because he knows his members don't want it and the American people don't want it."
"Republicans, Democrats, and independents all overwhelmingly want Congress to take serious action to protect privacy—in particular against AI and data brokers—and oppose any efforts to rubber-stamp the government's warrantless mass surveillance powers as is," Vitka continued.
"Before any vote on reauthorizing FISA," he added, "Congress must first enact real protections for Americans' privacy, in particular by closing the data broker loophole to prevent the government from circumventing the courts and independent oversight through the purchase of Americans' private location, web browsing, and other sensitive information."
Various bills, including the bipartisan Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act introduced last month by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), would close the loophole that agencies use to buy their way around the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, which is supposed to protect Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Demand Progress has endorsed that bill, and on Thursday partnered with the Project On Government Oversight and over 130 other artificial intelligence and civil rights groups for a letter urging Republican and Democratic congressional leaders to impose "much-needed privacy protections against government agencies' warrantless mass surveillance of people in the United States."
President Donald Trump and his pro-spying deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, have fought for a "clean" reauthorization, but the GOP has slim majorities in both chambers of Congress. In the House, Johnson can only afford to lose two votes, and in the Senate, most bills require at least some Democratic support to get to the president's desk.
The conduct of Trump's second administration has fueled calls for reform. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a Thursday statement that "as the Trump administration continues to run roughshod over our Constitution, we cannot continue to give them a further opening to sacrifice our civil liberties in the name of national security. We cannot give Stephen Miller a blank check to conduct domestic surveillance in violation of the Fourth Amendment."
"I have been working on essential reforms to FISA across administrations, and I have not wavered—whether it is a Democratic or Republican president," she noted. "This has always been a bipartisan issue for good reason. Americans across political parties care deeply about privacy and not being surveilled. Congress has a duty to protect those fundamental constitutional liberties. Any attempt to push forward a 'clean' reauthorization of Section 702 will put our private, sensitive data at risk."
Jayapal stressed that "this Trump administration has been particularly brazen in its use of domestic surveillance to suppress our constitutional rights and dissent. In just the last six weeks, the administration has blacklisted Anthropic for refusing to stand down on its requirement that its technology not be used for the mass surveillance of Americans, and we learned that the Department of Justice surveilled me—and likely many other members—while reviewing the Epstein files, seeking justice for survivors."
"In Minnesota, federal immigration agents have surveilled and intimidated US citizens exercising their First Amendment rights to document agents' unlawful actions," the congresswoman noted. "It is time to reform FISA, ensure our Fourth Amendment protections are guaranteed, and stop the government surveillance of Americans."
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Johnson Vows Gas Price Hikes ‘Just a Temporary Blip.’ Expert Analyses Warn Otherwise
"Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, and Qatar have no bypass capability whatsoever," said one expert. "Their shipments are wholly reliant on Hormuz transit."
Mar 11, 2026
House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to downplay the rise in gas prices caused by President Donald Trump's war with Iran, but energy analysts are warning that Americans are in for significant pain at the pump.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Johnson (R-La.) said that the rise in gas prices was a small price to pay for achieving American military objectives in Iran, which he baselessly claimed was about to strike the US if the US didn't strike first.
Johnson also predicted that the rise in gas prices, which on Wednesday reached an average of $3.58 per gallon in the US, would be short lived.
"Most of this is because the Strait of Hormuz has been closed by the regime down there," Johnson said. "But it will be reopened, and it will take a couple of weeks, but gas prices will come back down... So this is a temporary blip in an extraordinary trend of a return to American energy dominance."
Despite Johnson's rosy assessment, energy experts Trevor Higgins and Akshay Thyagarajan of the Center for American Progress published an analysis on Wednesday explaining why there will be no quick fix for high gas prices.
What's more, the analysts said that the Iran conflict appeared ready to raise prices on much more than just gasoline.
"Many parts of the US economy are still dependent on fossil fuels, and higher prices for oil and gas increase the prices for gasoline, electricity, fertilizer, food, and more," they noted. "As long as this war continues—and perhaps for some time thereafter—American households will pay higher prices at the pump, on their utility bills, and on their grocery bills."
Higgins and Thyagarajan documented how the Iran war's impact on oil prices was already greater than the impact that Russia's invasion of Ukraine had in 2022, and they warned it would only grow more severe the longer the conflict persisted.
One particularly worrisome impact of the Iran war, Higgins and Thyagarajan said, would be putting upward pressure on Americans' utility bills, which have already been rising significantly over the last year thanks to the enormous energy demands of artificial intelligence data centers.
They pointed to the dependence of US power infrastructure on liquified natural gas (LNG), which generates roughly 43% of electricity in the US, as a serious vulnerability.
"Following the start of Operation Epic Fury, both European and Asian LNG futures prices have already skyrocketed," they wrote. "As of March 9, they’ve increased by 77% and 51%, respectively, compared to prices before the event. This price increase is much higher than the increase immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If this increase persists, it could raise utility bills further."
Clayton Seigle, energy analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said on Monday that there was very little hope of US gas prices decreasing until Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz for commercial shipping.
Seigle said that Iran could wage a relatively cheap military campaign against ships attempting to traverse the strait using a combination of speedboats, naval mines, and drones.
"Their destructive firepower is less than that of missiles," he wrote, "but sufficient to cause damage and deter commercial shipping."
Seigle also dismissed any plans by other oil-producing nations to ship their products through alternative trade routes, which he said would do too little to ease the oil supply crisis caused by the strait's closure.
" Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, and Qatar have no bypass capability whatsoever," he explained. "Their shipments are wholly reliant on Hormuz transit."
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Mike Johnson Defends GOP Colleague's Bigoted Attack on Muslims
"If a member of Congress said that Jews shouldn't be let into America, would Mike Johnson reply by saying... there's a lot of problems with the Talmud?" said one critic.
Mar 10, 2026
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday defended a Republican colleague who made an explicitly bigoted attack on Muslims.
During a press conference at the US Capitol, Johnson (R-La.) was asked about remarks made by Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), who wrote a social media post on Monday declaring that "Muslims don't belong in American society."
Johnson indicated that he took issue with the tone of Ogles' statement, but defended its underlying sentiment.
"Look, I've spoken to those members, and all members, as I always do, about our tone and our message and what we say," Johnson began. "Look, there's a lot of energy in the country, a lot of popular sentiment, that the demand to impose Sharia law in America is a serious problem. That's what animates this."
Mike Johnson on House Republicans' Islamophobic rhetoric: "There's a lot of energy in the country and a lot of popular sentiment that the demand to impose Sharia Law in America is a serious problem" pic.twitter.com/TmPrxMZmiA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 10, 2026
Johnson provided no evidence that backed up his assertion that the potential imposition of Sharia, which is the legal system based on Islamic scriptures, is a "serious problem" in the US. The number of cities and states in the US that recognize the authority of Sharia is zero and there is no movement pushing to change that.
Johnson went on to say that Ogles "used different language than I would have used" when he said Muslims "don't belong" in the US, but he reiterated that the fears animating Ogles' remarks were "a serious issue."
"Sharia law, and the imposition of Sharia law, is contrary to the US Constitution," Johnson said, without offering any examples of Sharia being imposed in the US. "When you seek to come to a country and to not assimilate, but to impose Sharia law... that is the conflict that people are talking about. It is not about people, as Muslims, it is about those who seek to impose a different police system that is in direct conflict with the Constitution."
In fact, Ogles' post did not specify he was only opposed to the imposition of Sharia law. Rather, he flatly declared that "Muslims don't belong in American society."
Mehdi Hasan, editor-in-chief of Zeteo News, expressed disgust with Johnson's evasion about Ogles' bigoted statements.
"Rep. Ogles said Muslims don't belong in America," he wrote. "And this is all Speaker Mike Johnson can bring him to say in response??"
Journalist Laura Rozen was baffled by Johnson's attempt to justify Ogles' views.
"Who is demanding imposing Sharia law in America?" she asked.
Journalist Zaid Jilani conducted a thought experiment where he tried applying Johnson's defense of Ogles' attacks on Muslims to attacks on other religious minorities.
"If a member of Congress said that Jews shouldn't be let into America," Jilani wondered, "would Mike Johnson reply by saying, well I wouldn't use those words, but there's a lot of problems with the Talmud?"
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