Fraud
This week in the House is Fraud Week based on the large number of bills likely to receive a vote that in some way are intended to decrease or eliminate many different kinds of fraud. Example bills up for a vote include:
- H.R. 428: Bonuses for Cost-Cutters and Fraud Preventers Act, as amended which would expand the opportunities for cash bonuses to staff who can cut costs. We see no way that this could go wrong and instead incentivize new ways of defrauding the government.
- H.R. 6338: Stop Illegal Fishing Act
- H.R. 7892: No Aid for Ghost Students Act of 2026
Funding
One bill will likely become law this week if it passes the House:
This is the much discussed reconciliation bill which will provide even more money to the DHS agencies ICE and CBP through 2029. (Our post from this past Friday with more detail
FISA Section 702
This part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Section 702, is controversial because it can result in spying on US citizens without warrants ever being issued.
There are opponents of Section 702 as it’s currently constructed in both parties which makes passing a renewal without some modifications difficult.
Further, while it is true that the authorities in Section 702 will lapse this week, that doesn’t mean that all surveillance under its authority ends immediately.
Why not? Because there is a court, the FISA Court, which handles things related to foreign intelligence surveillance. In March, they certified the use of Section 702 through next year (while limiting the use of certain tools by certain agencies).
Further still, the President announced last week that he was making the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, the acting Director of National Intelligence.
The combination of pre-existing objections to Section 702, the fact that it won’t really end if the law lapses and Trump’s preference for Pulte as acting Director of National lntelligence all point to another last-minute short-term reauthorization of the law as it currently exists or possibly of it lapsing.
Committee Meetings
There are 46 committee meetings across both chambers of Congress this week. Several about about national defense appropriations and closed to the public. There are some others of potential interest and long-term effect:
- Nuclear Permitting Reform: Legislation to Advance Efficient Licensing; this covers three pieces of legislation aiming to speed the nuclear permitting process.
- Hearings to examine the President’s proposed budget request for fiscal year 2027 for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- Senate Judiciary to examine, among other things, legislation that would permit televised Supreme Court hearings and another which would expand media coverage (including televised proceedings) within the federal court system.
Fraud, Funding, and FISA was originally published by GovTrack.us and is republished with permission.
