The Senate approved a two-week extension of a key surveillance authority Friday, sending the measure to President Trump’s desk ahead of the program’s Monday expiration. The temporary stopgap measure — reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) through April 30 — passed the House early Friday morning after longer-term reauthorization bills were defeated amid a GOP rebellion. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and President Trump had sought a longer-term renewal of the controversial warrantless surveillance program but were unable to sway privacy-minded conservative hardliners. The House voted down a five-year reauthorization with program changes in a 200–220
The Senate approved a two-week extension of a key surveillance authority Friday, sending the measure to President Trump’s desk ahead of the program’s Monday expiration. The temporary stopgap measure — reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) through April 30 — passed the House early Friday morning after longer-term reauthorization bills were defeated amid a GOP rebellion. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and President Trump had sought a longer-term renewal of the controversial warrantless surveillance program but were unable to sway privacy-minded conservative hardliners. The House voted down a five-year reauthorization with program changes in a 200–220 vote, then rejected a “clean” 18-month extension in a 197–228 vote. The speaker then brought a two-week extension to the floor, where it was approved by unanimous consent, buying time for further negotiations. “We were very close tonight. There’s some nuances with the language, and some questions need to be answered, and we’ll get it done,” he told reporters after the vote series. “The extension allows us the time to do that.” Section 702 allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect large amounts of communications involving foreigners without a warrant. However, communications involving Americans who interact with those overseas surveillance targets can also be incidentally collected, raising privacy concerns. The House’s failure to approve a longer extension suggests changes may be needed to how Americans’ data is collected and stored to win over holdouts. #congress #senate #houseofrepresentatives #fisa #cspan ♬ original sound - C-SPAN - undefined
