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.”