Johnson bucks GOP privacy hawks in closed lawmaker meeting on spy tool renewal

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., bucked the will of conservative privacy hawks during a closed-door House GOP Conference meeting on Wednesday, cautioning lawmakers against an amendment on warrant requirements as the House of Representatives readies to renew a key federal government surveillance tool.

Two sources in the room during Johnson’s remarks told Fox News Digital that he broached the warrant amendment during House Republicans’ weekly conference meeting, which multiple lawmakers said centered on renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Section 702 allows the government to surveil communications of non-Americans overseas who are suspected of having links to terrorism without a warrant. If Americans are caught at the other end of the line, their data could get swept up as well.

Johnson told GOP lawmakers that while he understood the House Judiciary Committee’s arguments on the amendment, its language on exceptions to the warrant requirement may be "too narrow and would be difficult to apply," one of the sources said.

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The amendment, led by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., would ban intelligence officials from querying information about U.S. citizens collected through Section 702 without first getting a warrant, save for emergency situations with an imminent threat of death or bodily harm.

"702 is narrowly tailored to foreigners abroad. The proposed amendment would require a warrant to search the head of ISIS and Al-Qaeda’s data. That is wrong. It would endanger Americans. I appreciate the speaker's opposition to the amendment," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio,