WASHINGTON — Congress voted on Friday to extend an expiring surveillance law for 10 days, after libertarian-leaning Republicans in the House demanded that they be allowed to vote on adding new privacy limits to any long-term extension.
The law, a major section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, is set to expire Monday. The short-term extension bill, approved by the House shortly after 2 a.m., pushes that off until April 30, creating more time for negotiations.
Late Friday morning, Sen. John Thune, the Republican majority leader, called up the bill for passage and no Democratic senator objected, sending the measure to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Before that voice vote, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who supports limiting surveillance, said that he had consulted several of the House Republicans who blocked the bill overnight and that they asked him to allow the extension to give them negotiating leverage. The stopgap, he said, “makes reform more likely and expiration makes reform less likely.”
The overnight drama, which dragged into the Senate after most lawmakers had already left town for the weekend, made clear that significant headwinds remained for both chambers when members return and try to reach an agreement on a more durable path forward for the contentious provision, known as Section 702.
Trump has been pressuring Republicans to pass an 18-month reauthorization of Section 702 without any changes.
Speaker Mike Johnson has been attempting to comply, but he needs the backing of nearly every GOP member in the House to proceed. Twenty balked early Friday, making it impossible to move forward even though four Democrats crossed party lines to try to help him bring the matter up for a vote.
Trump had urged Republicans on Wednesday to “unify” behind Johnson and extend the law without any new limits.
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