Congress extends controversial spy law for 45 days after Senate rejects House bill
Congress punted a long-term fix for a controversial spy law for the second time in a month as lawmakers raced to avoid a lapse in the government's warrantless surveillance powers...
By Fox News · Fox News
Congress punted a long-term fix for a controversial spy law for the second time in a month as lawmakers raced to avoid a lapse in the government's warrantless surveillance powers set to expire Friday at midnight. Both chambers approved a 45-day extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) before leaving Washington on Thursday, allowing lawmakers more time to negotiate reforms to the hotly contested program. President Donald Trump, who wants a clean extension of the surveillance program, is expected to sign the measure into law. The Senate first agreed to extend the law to mid-June by voice vote, which was quickly followed by the House of Representatives clearing the extension measure in a bipartisan manner. HOUSE PASSES FISA RENEWAL IN BIPARTISAN VOTE, PUTTING PRESSURE ON SENATE BEFORE LOOMING DEADLINE House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and his leadership team argued the spy authority was too critical to lapse. "We can't have FISA go dark," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters earlier on Thursday. The bicameral agreement for a short-term fix came after the Senate swiftly rejected a House bill extending the Section 702 program for three years. The lower chamber's measure included modest reforms to the program and a permanent ban on central bank digital currencies — a priority of conservatives associated with the House Freedom Caucus. But the inclusion of that provision was a nonstarter in the Senate, given that it was unrelated to the underlying bill and was already baked into a housing affordability package passed by the Senate in March that the House has yet to move on. "We'll kick it over there and process it quickly, and we'll kick the can down the road again," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital. More than two dozen GOP privacy hawks voted against the Senate-passed measure. The group sharply criticized the Senate for quashing the House proposal and argued the upper chamber was tr…