Congress on Thursday passed a 45-day extension of the government’s warrantless foreign surveillance authority.
The Senate passed the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by unanimous consent while the House followed with a 261–111 vote, authorizing the programs and sending the measure to President Donald Trump’s desk.
The vote came after the Senate blocked a more ambitious House package passed Wednesday that would have reauthorized Section 702 for three years while simultaneously banning the Federal Reserve from establishing a central bank digital currency. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, (R-SD) said the combined bill could not pass the Senate. Forty-two House Democrats supported that combined bill and 22 Republicans opposed it. Many of the 22 Republicans who opposed that legislation removed their opposition to the amendment-free rule, enabling a floor vote on the bill.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who led the opposition to a clean re-authorization of Section 702 in the Senate, said after the vote that he had secured the commitment of Senate Intelligence Committee leaders “to ensure the declassification of a FISA court opinion revealing abuses of Americans’ rights.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said Sen. Wyden could face “consequences” if he declassifies those materials.
“One of these days there are going to be some consequences, and it may be while I’m the chairman of this committee,” Cotton said on the Senate floor.
Section 702 permits the U.S. government to collect the communications of foreign nationals located abroad, including when those individuals are in contact with American citizens, which results in the “incidental” collection of Americans’ communications.
A federal court ruled in January 2025 that the federal government’s backdoor searches of Americans’ data collected under Section 702 are unconstitutional.
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