President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a bill to extend a spying authority of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for 45 days as congressional debate on the controversial measure continues.
Both chambers of Congress raced to pass the short-term measure earlier Thursday after the Senate declined to take up a House-passed bill to extend the deadline until 2029.
The House passed the “clean” extension, without reforms, which punts the deadline from April 30 to June 12, in a 261–111 vote. It was passed under a suspension of the rules, meaning it relied on Democratic support to pass. However, opposition to the measure was also bipartisan, with 26 Republicans joining 85 Democrats in casting a “No” vote.
The measure’s passage and signature into law came just hours before the critical—but contentious—power was due to expire.
Section 702 allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect emails, phone calls, texts, and other communications of foreign nationals located outside the United States for national security purposes, such as tracking terrorism, espionage, or weapons proliferation, without obtaining an individualized warrant.
However, the data of Americans who communicate with these foreign targets can be incidentally gathered and is available to U.S. intelligence without a warrant—a “backdoor search” loophole that has come under criticism by privacy advocates.
Trump, despite his current support for a clean reauthorization of the power, has acknowledged his experience with the law in the past.
In a post on Truth Social, he described it as “the worst and most illegal abuse of FISA in [U.S.] History,” referencing disclosures that revealed that the FBI had used Section 702 of FISA to spy on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign as part of the Crossfire Hurricane operation.
Nevertheless, Trump has praised the intelligence utility of the authority when used appropriately.
However, some lawmakers in both chambers are disinclined to agree: Bipartisan concerns about Section 702’s effects on American civil liberties, particularly Fourth Amendment protections, are as old as the legislation itself.
Despite Trump’s calls for a clean reauthorization—calls that have won the support of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)—many of those congressional skeptics are among Trump’s closest allies, including lawmakers like Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.).
On Wednesday, the lower chamber also authorized a bill that would extend Section 702 of FISA for three years, but that measure included provisions that have been opposed by Senate Democrats.
Namely, the three-year extension bill would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing digital currency, an asset class known as central bank digital currency.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has long warned that such a measure would struggle in the upper chamber, and urged the House against attaching it to the reauthorization measure.