The House failed to advance a compromise proposal to renew a national-security surveillance program for five years.
WASHINGTON -- A compromise House proposal to renew a powerful national-security surveillance program for five years failed to advance early Friday, an embarrassing setback for Republican Party leaders who thought they could muscle the measure over the finish line in overnight votes.
With no immediate path forward, the House voted to extend the law for another two weeks until April 30.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is widely viewed as among the most critical surveillance powers that the U.S. government has. It allows the government to collect information on foreigners overseas who are using U.S. communication systems.
But the program has also been criticized by privacy advocates as well as Republican and Democratic lawmakers for allowing warrantless gathering and searching of information on Americans who are communicating with those foreigners.
President Trump had urged Republican lawmakers to pass an 18-month extension without any amendments. The program lapses on Monday, putting pressure on lawmakers to act quickly.
"I am asking Republicans to UNIFY," he said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday. "Our Military Patriots desperately need FISA 702, and it is one of the reasons we have had such tremendous SUCCESS on the battlefield."
But some conservatives had objected to a "clean" extension, prompting talks with the White House and Speaker Mike Johnson (R. La.). The revised proposal, released late Thursday, would extend the law for five years, more than triple the duration in the original bill. Key revisions include the addition of a warrant requirement to collect information on Americans, as well as criminal penalties for unauthorized queries of information on Americans.
"This is a solid bill, it protects Americans in every way, and it must get done," Rep. Clay Higgins (R., La.), who has been opposing a reauthorization without amendments, said on X.
But critics said the revisions were insufficient, especially the warrant requirement. Some lawmakers have been calling to require warrants for content searches of data collected on Americans. But the warrant requirement in the bill only covers data collection, they said.
The vote on amending the text failed, with 200 in favor and 220 opposed, as a dozen Republicans crossed party lines to join most Democrats against the measure. A subsequent procedural vote needed to move the bill to a final vote also failed, with 197 in favor and 228 against. The House then agreed to the two-week extension by unanimous consent.
Democrats criticized Republicans for trying to push through the amended measure in the middle of night, saying they had no time to read through the 13-page proposal.
"This is a backroom deal," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D., Mass.), the top Democrat on the Rules Committee). "This is too damn important to do it this way, way too important. No hearings, no markups, no real process, no transparency, no time to read it and no time to vet it."
Rep. Warren Davidson (R., Ohio) called the failed approach "Schrödinger's Amendment." He said on X that some lawmakers "felt it was a massive reform that would make FISA unworkable. Others felt it did nothing of substance. Both cannot be true."
FISA is a Watergate-era law that expanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Section 702 of FISA, currently up for reauthorization, allows the National Security Agency to collect information of foreigners overseas that are using U.S. communication systems like emails or text messages. The information can be shared with other agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
FISA has been credited with generating intelligence used to thwart terrorist plots, disrupt drug trafficking and other acts. But the tool has also been improperly used to surveil George Floyd demonstrators, participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, and 19,000 donors to a political campaign, past disclosures have shown.
Even if the issue gets stuck in Congress, the program doesn't shut down immediately. In March, an intelligence court approved the FISA program to continue for another year, according to unclassified talking points the administration sent to lawmakers.