The US government’s most controversial surveillance tool just hit a wall. Lawmakers left Washington without renewing FISA Section 702, the legal authority that allows intelligence agencies to conduct warrantless wiretaps targeting non-US persons abroad for foreign intelligence purposes.
On June 11, 2026, the House voted 198-218 against a proposal that would have pushed the program’s expiration date to July 2. That narrow defeat means no new surveillance collections can begin under the program, marking a significant lapse in a capability that the intelligence community has long described as indispensable.
How we got here
FISA Section 702 has been on borrowed time for months. The authority technically expired on April 20, 2026, but Congress kept it alive through a series of short-term extensions.
The last proper reauthorization happened in April 2024, when Congress passed the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act. That legislation extended the program for two years.
