A long-standing law that allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect and analyze vast amounts of foreign communications without the need for search warrants is set to expire next week, but lawmakers are at an impasse over whether to allow the Trump administration to extend it without changes.
The law, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), allows the National Security Agency, CIA, FBI and other federal intelligence agencies to record foreign communications flowing within the United States without the need for a separate search warrant.
While covering much of the world’s communications, these agencies also collect untold amounts of information, including phone records and emails, about Americans who interact with people they monitor overseas. This data is being collected despite constitutional protections that protect Americans and people within the United States from government surveillance.
But ahead of the law’s April 20 expiration, a bipartisan privacy group of representatives and senators is calling for sweeping changes to FISA, calling the changes “essential” to protect Americans’ privacy rights.
Some lawmakers have called for broader reforms after years of scandals and surveillance abuses by previous U.S. administrations, while others are holding up votes to advance their own political goals by attaching the provision to other bills.
As of this week, the White House is enthusiastic about the idea of passing a simple reauthorization without making any changes to the law, according to President Trump’s social media posts.
Late Friday night, House Republicans approved extending FISA through April 30 as a stopgap measure to allow more time for negotiations. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene on Monday, but would need to approve the bill with a majority vote to pass a short-term extension.
The bipartisan group’s legislative solution is the Government Surveillance Reform Act, introduced in Congress in March by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mike Lee (R-UT) and others, and is aimed at reducing some of the government’s warrantless surveillance programs. Among other things, lawmakers want a provision that would prevent government agencies from exploiting “backdoor investigation” loopholes that allow them to track Americans’ communications without obtaining a search warrant.
Another key provision would prohibit federal agencies from purchasing commercial data on Americans from data brokers. The U.S. government has long maintained that the action does not require court approval.
App developers collect large amounts of location data from people who use their smartphone apps and sell that information to brokers, who in turn sell the data to governments and militaries. FBI Director Kash Patel acknowledged at a Congressional hearing in March that the agency is purchasing location data on Americans without seeking court permission.
Both Republicans and Democrats are reportedly keen to close the loophole, which allows spy agencies to buy commercial data and use AI models to analyze billions of locations. This is also currently the deadlock point in negotiations with the US government over unrestricted use of Anthropic and OpenAI’s tools.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Government Surveillance Project are some of the privacy groups supporting the bipartisan bill.
It is currently unclear whether the bill will pass, but lawmakers say it is necessary, especially as advances in technology make it easier than ever for tech companies and governments to monitor people.
Wyden, the longest-serving member of the Congressional Intelligence Committee and known as a privacy hawk, warned that many lawmakers are not fully aware that multiple U.S. administrations have long relied on secret legal interpretations of Section 702 that “directly impact Americans’ privacy rights.” Wyden said the issue remains confidential but called on the administration to declassify the information so lawmakers can discuss it.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky., 4th) said in a post on X on Thursday that he would vote against reauthorizing Section 702 after echoing Wyden in expressing concerns about how the FBI is interpreting the law.
Even if Section 702 expires on Monday, it does not immediately end the US government’s surveillance powers.
Although members of the U.S. House of Representatives have not yet reached an agreement on updating or changing Section 702, a legal specificity would allow U.S. surveillance to continue until March 2027, even if the law expires, unless Congress actively intervenes.
That’s because the secretive Washington, D.C., court that oversees the government’s FISA compliance, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), annually asks the government to prove its actions are legal. The rubber stamp allows the government to collect phone calls and emails for 12 months, effectively guaranteeing that surveillance programs that rely on FISA’s legal authority will continue for at least a year.
The U.S. government also has other surveillance powers that are not subject to Congressional oversight, such as Executive Order 12333, a completely secret executive order that directs much of the U.S. government’s surveillance outside the United States. It also ensnares an unknown amount of Americans’ private communications.
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