The short-term funding bill the House passed Thursday night, which the Senate is still debating ahead of a shutdown at 12:01 Saturday morning, is like every Republican bill we've seen so far: full of horrible stuff that they hoped no one would notice until it passes. It includes elements like ceding the power of Congress to make appropriations for the intelligence community, and letting Trump decide where to spend the money.
Lawmakers affiliated with the intelligence panels are scrambling to figure out why the short-term budget measure appears to sideline a long-standing law preventing the administration from spending money on intelligence activities Congress has not specifically authorized, or in exigent circumstances, Congress has not at least been notified of. The measure appears to render parts of that law—Section 504 of the 1947 National Security Act—"notwithstanding," or null and void, until the budget extension expires in a month. Normally, short-term budget extensions make specific reference to the applicability of the law for the duration of the measure.
According to a person familiar with the language, the Office of Management and Budget submitted the “notwithstanding” language to Congress, which appeared in the budget bill House Republican leaders presented to their rank-and-file members on Tuesday, and began to set off alarm bells across the intelligence committees in Congress late Wednesday. Congressional staffers with oversight of the intelligence community believe the "notwithstanding" mistake may have been inserted in error, but they are inquiring as to whether it was an intentional effort to give the president unprecedented power to work around Congress.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a leading privacy and civil rights champion, calls this what it is: "extraordinarily dangerous." Particularly so, he continues, "with the [intelligence community's] vast spying authorities and the most political CIA director in memory."
Congress passed a reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act just this week, the law that allows the NSA to sweep up masses of Americans' electronic files—communication, photos, videos, documents and records—and let domestic law enforcement agencies trawl through it without warrants. Which gives racist Trump and his racist Attorney General Jeff Sessions expanded powers to target his enemies (basically all of us).
This provision, whether a typo or an intended expansion of Trump's powers to spy, is more than just one more abrogation of congressional power and responsibility vis-a-vis the executive branch. It's fucking dangerous.