House GOP’s Attempt To Temporarily Extend Warrantless Spying Tool Fails

The House failed to temporarily extend a warrantless spying tool Thursday, one day before its expiration.

With the tool set to expire Friday, Speaker Mike Johnson held a vote Thursday to extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) section 702 until July 2. Democrats opposed even a short-term FISA extension over President Donald Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence.

Section 702 allows the government to collect and search American citizens’ data without a warrant if they were in contact with targeted noncitizens located outside of the U.S. It facilitates tracking foreign intelligence, cyber threats and terrorism, which often collect Americans’ data in the process.

The House needed a two-thirds majority to pass the extension.

House Democrats stated they would not vote for its extension unless Trump yanked his nomination of Pulte.

“Section 702 is a critical foreign intelligence authority, be we cannot in good conscience vote for reauthorization without significant reforms to protect both national security and the constitutional privacy rights of Americans,” the Democrats said in a statement. “Bill Pulte has no relevant national security experience. Consequently, his appointment is in defiance of the law that requires the Director of National Intelligence to have ‘extensive’ national security experience. The apparent motivation for his elevation is the demonstrated willingness of Bill Pulte to search government databases for alleged dirt on President Trump’s chosen political enemies.”

Following the vote, Johnson said during a press gaggle attended by the Daily Caller News Foundation that House Democrats were willing to “jeopardize” the safety of Americans to score “a cheap political point.”

“That is what the current Democrat party stands for,” Johnson said. “They are willing to jeopardize the safety and the security of the American people to make a cheap political point … Their excuse is that they’re upset about a very temporary appointment that the President of the United States has already said will be very temporary, while he searches for and selects a new director of national intelligence, that is an important process, it takes some time, thought, and deliberation.”

“It is detestable, it is dangerous, it is going to jeopardize the safety and security of people,” Johnson continued.

However, Democrats and some Republicans opposed the extension because the tool did not require the government to obtain a warrant before spying on Americans.

A procedural vote on extending Section 702 failed to advance in the Senate after seven Republican joined Democrats to vote against it. These Republicans senators were Josh Hawley of Missouri, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rick Scott of Florida, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Eric Schmitt of Missouri.

Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote in favor of the motion.

Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and House Freedom Caucus members have historically opposed or conditioned support on reforms. The House passed a 45-day extension of Section 702 in a 261 to 111 vote on April 30.

Massie and Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado introduced the “Surveillance Accountability Act” on April 23, which would require federal law enforcement to show probable cause before accessing Americans’ private digital data.

Trump called for the passage of FISA section 702 in an April 15 statement, though he spent years opposing the program until the lead up to the Iran war. Weeks before the U.S. entered the conflict on Feb. 28, administration officials arranged a meeting with lawmakers in early February to promote FISA programs without changes.

The president’s position changed after the 2024 election, when Trump called to “KILL FISA” because it was used illegally to spy on his campaign. A Department of Justice inspector general’s report found “significant inaccuracies” in the FBI applications for FISA warrants against a Trump campaign adviser, and the DOJ later conceded that two of the four orders were invalid.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with comment from House Speaker Mike Johnson. 

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