April 15 (UPI) -- House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., delayed a vote Wednesday to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act while he tries to gather more support for the bill.
Hard-line Republicans insist that the bill be amended to include a rule that requires warrants, but Johnson and President Donald Trump want the bill to be renewed "clean" for another 18 months.
FISA was first passed in 2008 and has a provision in Section 702 that allows warrantless surveillance of non-Americans outside the country to gather foreign intelligence. It forces U.S. companies to turn over communications data to intelligence agencies, and Americans' data is often included incidentally.
Former President Joe Biden renewed the law in 2024 but added some reforms to it. That resolution was called the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, and it amended the section to protect U.S. citizens from invasions of privacy.
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