House extends FISA surveillance powers two weeks amid GOP revolt

The House pushed the nation’s most controversial surveillance authority to April 30, but only after a Republican revolt forced leaders to settle for a two-week patch instead of the longer extension Donald Trump wanted.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was set to expire on April 20, and House lawmakers first tried to move a 5-year renewal and then an 18-month extension. Both efforts collapsed in GOP infighting. Early Friday morning, the House turned to unanimous consent to extend the program for two weeks, sending the measure to the Senate and buying a narrow window before the deadline.

The episode was less a debate over surveillance policy than a test of Trump’s leverage over his own party. Trump administration officials privately argued that the country was at war and that the intelligence program was vital amid threats from Iran. But Trump’s public support for linking the issue to his elections bill complicated the strategy inside the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson had already canceled a planned vote on a clean reauthorization.

The resistance came from hard-line conservatives who said the bill did not do enough to protect Americans’ privacy when their communications are incidentally swept up during warrantless collection of foreigners’ messages abroad. Twenty conservative Republicans voted against advancing the legislation in an earlier procedural step, while four Democrats crossed party lines to support it. Some Republicans also objected that the package did not include a ban on a central bank digital currency, turning the FISA fight into a broader test of conservative priorities.

Johnson said lawmakers were close to a deal but needed more time to work through language. That left leaders with a temporary fix and a still-unresolved caucus split, one that exposed the limits of Trump’s ability to force a longer extension through a revolt on his right. The House Republican leadership had earlier hoped to advance an 18-month renewal, with the White House backing that path, but the internal split made that impossible.

The Senate now inherits the same pressure point. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has backed a clean 18-month extension after the Justice Department agreed to restore congressional access to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review proceedings, saying the administration had brought back transparency and that Section 702 remains one of the country’s most valuable national security tools. For now, the two-week extension merely resets the clock. By April 30, the same fight over privacy, national security and Trump’s grip on Republicans will be back.