Washington, DC — On Wednesday evening, Punchbowl News reported that House Speaker Mike Johnson has decided to remove Rep. Mike Turner as chair of the House Intelligence Committee because of his handling of last year’s FISA reauthorization, which will imminently return to Congress’s docket. A left-right coalition consisting of Demand Progress, Due Process Institute, FreedomWorks and Restore the Fourth called for Turner to resign as chair nearly a year ago.
The following is a statement from Demand Progress Policy Director Sean Vitka and Due Process Institute Vice President Jason Pye:
“As we said 11 months ago, Mike Turner abused his chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee to mislead his colleagues, stop commonsense privacy protections, sneak through massive expansions of warrantless surveillance and even compromise classified information. His removal couldn’t come soon enough, and it should serve as a warning to whomever his replacement is ahead of the imminent debate over FISA. We will fight just as hard against any other leader of this committee who mistakes its responsibility to conduct oversight of intelligence agencies as an excuse to push out propaganda and enable surveillance of people in the United States.”