Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., unveiled a new proposal Thursday to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a key spy power that is set to expire on April 30. The bill marks the third attempt to extend the program after two failed votes earlier this month, and it largely mirrors previous proposals that lawmakers rejected.
The legislation would reauthorize Section 702 for three years, a middle-ground duration between the 18-month and five-year extensions that failed in overnight votes. The program allows U.S. intelligence agencies to intercept the communications of foreign nationals located outside the United States, including roughly 350,000 foreign targets whose communications sometimes involve Americans.
What the Right Is Saying
Conservatives who sunk Johnson's previous reauthorization attempts are not yet on board with the latest revision. Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, a past chair of the House Freedom Caucus, said 'we're not there yet' in a video he shared to X on Thursday.
'I didn't take an oath to defend FISA, I didn't take an oath to defend the intelligence community,' Perry said. 'We can't have them spying on American citizens and, when they do, there has to be accountability and I haven't seen any that I'm satisfied with yet.'
Former Trump officials, like those in past administrations, have argued that a warrant requirement would overburden law enforcement and endanger national security. President Trump himself advocated for extension without changes in a post on Truth Social last week, writing: 'I am willing to risk the giving up of my Rights and Privileges as a Citizen for our Great Military and Country.' The president said he had spoken with military officials who called FISA necessary to protect troops overseas and Americans at home from foreign terror attacks.
What the Left Is Saying
Progressive and privacy-minded Democrats have long advocated for adding a warrant requirement before federal law enforcement can review Americans' information collected through the program. Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that lawmakers were working on a bipartisan solution and that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., was in touch with Johnson on the issue.
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a constitutional law scholar, wrote a memo to colleagues urging them to oppose the new bill. 'It continues the disastrous policy of trusting the FBI to self-police and self-report its abuses of Section 702 and backdoor searches of Americans' data,' Raskin wrote. 'FBI agents can still collect, search, and review Americans' communications without any review from a judge.'
Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, was blunt in her assessment. 'This is not a reform bill and it's not a compromise,' she wrote on X. 'It's a straight reauthorization with eight pages of words that serve no serious purpose other than to try to convince members that it's NOT a straight reauthorization.'
What the Numbers Show
Section 702 allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect communications from approximately 350,000 foreign targets annually. When those targets communicate with Americans, their calls, texts and emails can end up in a federal database available for review by law enforcement.
The program has been in place for nearly two decades. Johnson's new bill calls for the FBI to submit monthly explanations to an oversight official for reviews of Americans' information, along with criminal penalties for willful abuse. The legislation does not include a specific warrant requirement that privacy advocates from both parties have sought.
Glenn Gerstell, who served as general counsel at the National Security Agency during the Obama and first Trump administrations, characterized Johnson's reforms as an attempt to find middle ground. 'There's not a lot of really substantive changes to the statute, but some gestures are made to people who are worried about privacy and civil liberties,' Gerstell said. 'It seems like a pretty reasonable compromise that is going to be satisfactory to the national security agencies and yet at the same time represents some gesture to the privacy advocates.'
The Bottom Line
The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet Monday morning, the first step toward advancing the renewal bill toward a floor vote. With the program set to expire in less than one week, Johnson faces pressure from both sides — privacy advocates who want stronger protections for Americans and hardline Republicans and national security officials who argue the tool is essential to counterterrorism.
The new proposal appears to fall short of the inclusive, bipartisan approach that Himes had hoped for. With neither side fully satisfied, the path to passage remains uncertain as the April 30 deadline approaches.