The House passed a 10-day extension of the government’s warrantless surveillance powers at 2:09 a.m. Friday, kicking a deepening Republican civil war over the program to April 30 after two separate votes on longer-term renewals collapsed on the House floor.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which expires Monday, now heads to the Senate for approval. The law allows US intelligence agencies to intercept the communications of foreign nationals abroad without a warrant — and gives the government broad authority to search that intercept data for Americans’ private communications.
GOP leaders pushed for either a five-year renewal or the 18-month clean extension Trump demanded, but both votes failed. Freedom Caucus members and libertarian-leaning Republicans blocked both, demanding a warrant requirement, restrictions on search queries, and enhanced penalties for privacy violations. “They have to deal with the FISA court’s objection to the warrantless searches,” said Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris. Rep. Tim Burchett, one of the no votes, called the 10-day result “the best we could do.”
Trump urged lawmakers to “KILL FISA” in 2024 — he now wants a clean extension with no changes.
Democrats who voted to extend Section 702 in 2024 and helped defeat warrant amendments now oppose reauthorization entirely, arguing the tool is too dangerous with Trump in the White House. Neither shift reflects a principled change of position. Both parties recalculated who benefits from the program based on who controls the executive branch.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe attended a closed-door Republican conference meeting this week to lobby for a clean extension. The holdouts didn’t move. Speaker Mike Johnson now has until April 30.
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