US Congress passes 10-day extension of surveillance law amid Republican infighting

Both chambers of Congress voted in quick succession Friday to pass a brief 10-day extension of a controversial warrantless surveillance law after Republican infighting tanked plans for a much longer renewal of the law with no changes.

Donald Trump had repeatedly demanded that Republican holdouts “UNIFY” behind Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, in favor of an extension of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) without changes. But chaos ensued late Thursday as Republican leadership tried and failed twice in votes attempting to reauthorize the surveillance program, before resorting to a stopgap measure.

The law was originally set to expire on 20 April because of a sunset provision that requires it be periodically reauthorized.

Section 702, first enacted in 2008, allows national security agencies to collect and review texts and emails sent to and from foreigners living outside the US without a warrant. If Americans are talking to a non-US target living abroad, their communications can get swept up, too. Privacy advocates say that while the law is intended to facilitate the surveillance of foreigners outside the US, the government also uses it as a tool to spy on Americans without a warrant. Intelligence agencies say they need the program to prevent terror attacks and foreign espionage.

A rare coalition of progressive Democrats and hardline Republicans had joined forces against an unchanged extension. One of their biggest demands – echoed by privacy advocates – is a warrant requirement for Americans’ communications “incidentally” collected under Fisa. An amendment that would have included such a warrant requirement in the last Fisa renewal, two years ago, failed to pass after a dramatic 212-212 tie.

As lawmakers were called back to Congress to vote in the middle of the night, discussions grew heated.

“Are you kidding me? Who the hell is running this place?” said Jim McGovern, a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, during a tense floor debate. Twenty Republicans blocked their own leadership’s attempts for a procedural vote to push a clean 18-month extension through, while four Democrats crossed party lines to vote with the Republican majority. Lawmakers eventually agreed to a 10-day extension of the surveillance program shortly after 2am ET; the Senate passed the measure the following morning.

Ro Khanna, a CaliforniaDemocratic congressman, claimed victory after the late-night vote in the House: “We just defeated Johnson’s efforts to sneak through a 5 year FISA authorization tonight. Now, they will have to fight in daylight tomorrow!”