AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Congress returns here to Washington tomorrow, and there's a short time for it to get a lot done. NPR congressional reporter Eric McDaniel joins us now. Good morning, Eric.
ERIC MCDANIEL, BYLINE: Good morning.
RASCOE: So let's start with the war against Iran. I imagine that lawmakers will have something to say about it and the failed talks.
MCDANIEL: So Democrats in both chambers of Congress are going to force votes attempting to constrain the president on the war. The Constitution, of course, gives Congress the power to declare war, although it hasn't worked that way in practice in a while. Those votes are expected to fail, as have Democrats' past go-arounds at this. But after the president's post about ending Iranian civilization last week before announcing the ceasefire and his post about a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz this morning, Democrats have a lot of appetite to put Republicans on record for supporting the war, which remains hugely unpopular with the American public.
RASCOE: And supporting that war will eventually include voting on whether to approve $1.5 trillion for the Department of Defense.
MCDANIEL: Yeah, that vote will be in the coming weeks, and it's a record ask. You said trillion with a T, way more than the government spends on all nonmilitary discretionary spending in a year. I think that's all parts of the government that aren't Social Security, Medicaid, debt adjacent. We don't know how much of that is ending - is aimed at funding this conflict with Iran specifically, though.
RASCOE: That is the war portion, but there is more that Congress will need to tackle this week.
MCDANIEL: Totally. President Trump wants the Department of Homeland Security reopened. I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone listening - you've been hearing about this shutdown for so long, it's become the longest agency shutdown ever. There is a plan, which is pass a short-term funding bill to fund all of the agency except for immigration enforcement - they're doing that in cooperation with Democrats - then go through the longer process of funding all of DHS for the rest of Trump's time in office. Agencies are typically funded just a year at a time, so that's a big deal. The issue, of course, is that this is a plan that Republican leaders came up with, and there are a lot of rank-and-file house Republicans who just aren't on board for the short-term part of the deal. They're quick to point out that Speaker Mike Johnson called this a joke just before they left town a few weeks ago.
RASCOE: They have to figure that out to make sure airport security agents and others in the agency get their regular pay. And there's another big deadline, right?
MCDANIEL: Yeah, this one's kind of exciting. A little "James Bond" intrigue. They got to renew the government's big spying tool. It's called FISA 702 - I guess I should say, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That expires April 20. And yeah, that's in just a week or so. And 702 lets the government collect the communications of more than 300,000 foreign nationals located outside of the United States without a warrant every year. Those calls, texts, emails, et cetera, make up a huge part of the details that go into things like Trump's daily intelligence briefing.
RASCOE: Remind us again why this has been so controversial.
MCDANIEL: Well, it's that foreign nationals occasionally talk to people here in the United States, and those communications with Americans get scooped up, too. Usually, to read your private communications, my private communications, law enforcement - in this case, the FBI - has to convince a court that there's a reason to believe that you or me may be doing something crooked. Not so with FISA. There are some administrative hurdles. Those are pretty stringent, but a court doesn't have to give any specific permission for FBI agents to look through your stuff.
RASCOE: Tell us more about the lawmakers that are opposed to that.
MCDANIEL: Well, like I said, this is kind of fun to cover. And the reason is, it's not your usual partisan split. It's a different kind of ideological one. Lawmakers who are opposed care a lot about privacy and civil liberties. You get really weird combinations of folks calling for reforms. The Democratic Senator from Oregon is working with the Republican Senator from Utah, an Ohio Republican representative working with a Democrat from California. And those reformers could have enough support that Republican Speaker Mike Johnson in the House has to let them propose some changes to the bill before this authority ever actually gets renewed.
RASCOE: And what kind of changes are they looking for?
MCDANIEL: Well, the biggie is a warrant requirement before you can search for Americans' information. The intelligence community and their allies hate that one. They say it's way too burdensome, that courts aren't up for the thousands of asks that are involved for something like searching where an American kidnapping victim is mentioned in terrorist communications. Or at the very least, it would slow things way down. Civil liberties folks say the bar should be high for a search for an American's communications, though, so that's per the Fourth Amendment.
RASCOE: And lastly, democratic leaders are calling on Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell to drop out of the raise for California governor. What's the story there?
MCDANIEL: Yeah, and some Republicans in the House are talking about pushing for his removal from the House entirely. This comes after a handful of allegations of sexual coercion and assault, including rape. These were first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN on Friday. NPR hasn't independently confirmed this reporting, and Swalwell has denied wrongdoing. House Democratic leaders, including minority leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, called on Swalwell to drop out of the governor's race and for, quote, "a swift investigation into these allegations.æ
RASCOE: That's NPR congressional reporter Eric McDaniel. Eric, thank you so much.
MCDANIEL: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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