<\/p>\n
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson takes questions at a news conference following a closed-door GOP meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, April 21, 2026.<\/p>\n
J. Scott Applewhite\/AP<\/p>\n
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., emerges from a closed-door party meeting to speaks with reporters, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, April 21, 2026.<\/p>\n
J. Scott Applewhite\/AP<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Republican-controlled House approved a three-year reauthorization of a divisive U.S. surveillance program ahead of its expiration on Friday, adding new oversight measures but stopping short of the warrant requirement that critics have demanded.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A large group of Democrats joined most Republicans in passing the bill by a 235-191 vote. The law’s renewal still faces an uncertain path to passage, with a sign-off needed from the Senate and President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
While the Senate could eventually be amenable to oversight measures added by the House, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said late Wednesday that another short-term extension will likely be needed ahead of the Friday deadline. House leaders added separate legislation banning a central bank digital currency to win more votes, and Thune said that part of the bill is \u201cdead on arrival\u201d in the Senate.<\/p>\n
Still, the passage in the House was a breakthrough for Republican leaders after Speaker Mike Johnson earlier in the day secured the support of several Republican holdouts to advance the bill to a final vote. The chamber had been unable to pass a long-term extension since Republican leaders earlier this month staged a hectic late-night effort to extend the surveillance program, only to see multiple bills fail on the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo-thirds of the president\u2019s daily national security briefing comes from intelligence collected by that statute,\u201d Johnson said about the program. \u201cWe cannot allow it to go dark.\u201d<\/p>\n
Warrants remain central to the fight<\/p>\n
The debate centers on a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, that allows the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and other agencies to collect and analyze communications from foreign targets without a warrant. In doing so, the agencies can incidentally sweep up communications involving Americans who interact with foreign targets, an element of the program many lawmakers find unacceptable.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cThe intel community always just comes in and says, \u2018People will die if you do this,\u2019\u201d Republican Rep. Chip Roy said Tuesday, arguing in favor of a warrant requirement. \u201cWell, I\u2019m sorry. A lot of Americans died to give us and protect that Fourth Amendment right that we don\u2019t have government looking at our stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
The House bill does not include the warrant requirement. Instead, it would impose new oversight measures, including a monthly civil liberties review of U.S. person queries by an official within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, with any violations referred to the Intelligence Community\u2019s inspector general.<\/p>\n
The bill would also create criminal penalties for officials who knowingly misuse the system or falsify compliance, order a government audit of targeting practices and require new procedures to expand congressional access to FISA court proceedings.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
House Democrats took turns criticizing the extension on the floor ahead of Wednesday evening\u2019s planned final vote. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, derided the measure as a \u201cthree-year blank check\u201d that comes \u201cwithout any meaningful guardrails.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder this bill, FBI agents will still collect, search and review Americans’ communications without any review from a judge,\u201d said Raskin.<\/p>\n
Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, spoke in favor of the extension, calling the program \u201cwithout question, the most important foreign intelligence tool.” Himes, who voted for the extension, said the bill makes guardrails on the program “marginally and modestly stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are hurdles ahead in the Senate <\/p>\n
Both chambers are expected to scramble Thursday to pass a short-term extension of the law ahead of the Friday deadline \u2014 even as they continue to negotiate the longer-term renewal.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Thune said Wednesday afternoon that the Senate would try to quickly pass a 45-day extension. But any one senator can hold that up, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has already indicated he won’t go along. Wyden, who has long pushed to reform the law, will instead seek to pass a three-week extension with some additional provisions, according to his office.<\/p>\n
Another obstacle in the Senate is that the House linked the surveillance renewal with the separate digital currency legislation \u2014 a proposal Thune has said would be \u201cvery, very hard to pass.”<\/p>\n
Senators from both parties said they were committed, though, to ensuring that the law doesn’t expire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is clear consensus in the Senate as to how important it is,\u201d said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaker of the House Mike Johnson takes questions at a news conference following a closed-door GOP meeting at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[12,31018,18108,475,478,524,572,573,569,570,3010,20754,31017],"class_list":{"0":"post-50175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-john-thune","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-james-himes","10":"tag-jamie-raskin","11":"tag-john-thune","12":"tag-mike-johnson","13":"tag-mike-rounds","14":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","15":"tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","16":"tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","17":"tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","18":"tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","19":"tag-ron-wyden","20":"tag-surveillance-program-republicans-congress-fisa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116491427618571870","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}