The government’s key spy powers are again on the verge of expiration after Congress failed to approve another short-term extension of a powerful surveillance law.
The law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), allows US officials to monitor phone calls and text messages from foreign targets, but – controversially – it can also scoop up the data of Americans in the process.
That authority is now all but certain to expire given that House Republicans won’t stay in town to take any more votes. Asked why they’d leave Washington as scheduled, House Speaker Mike Johnson blasted Democrats, saying: “What more can I do?”
The deadline to renew the program has troubled US national security officials, who have had to scramble to blunt the potential for blind spots in intelligence collection each time Congress has failed to find a long-term solution.
For months, Republicans on Capitol Hill have searched for a path forward to reauthorize the legislation, and most recently, only secured a temporary 45-day patch – meaning that without action, the surveillance law will expire Friday at midnight.
