Congress approved a short-term extension of a divisive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act surveillance provision on Thursday, staving off a Friday expiration as lawmakers continued negotiating a longer reauthorization. The House voted to send the measure to President Donald Trump after the Senate cleared it earlier in the day, according to the Associated Press.
The temporary patch extends the authority through June 12 while House and Senate negotiators try to settle disputes over how the provision handles communications that may incidentally involve Americans. Trump and intelligence officials have urged lawmakers to renew the FISA provision that allows agencies to collect communications from foreign targets without a warrant, while critics have pressed for a warrant requirement when those communications are accessed.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., described the extension as a stopgap needed to keep negotiations moving. “I don’t like kicking the can down the road. Not my jam. But that’s where we are,” Thune said, as the temporary authorization buys time to work on longer-term reforms.
In the House, the extension drew support from both parties despite ongoing concerns about warrantless surveillance. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said he would not oppose the short extension, calling it “my fervent hope and determination it will give us the time to work together across the aisle to implement meaningful reforms,” in remarks included in the AP report.
The House passed the extension by a 261-111 vote, with many Democrats joining the Republican majority. Some Republicans, however, spoke against the short-term measure ahead of the vote, including Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie.
Massie argued on the House floor that the interim approach does not resolve the constitutional concerns driving opposition to longer-term renewal. “A short term infringement of the Constitution is still an infringement of the Constitution,” Massie said, according to the AP report.
The extension comes after lawmakers had previously approved a shorter stopgap through April 30 earlier in the month following a chaotic late-night session, with negotiations continuing afterward. House GOP leaders had appeared to make headway Wednesday by clearing a key procedural hurdle on a three-year renewal after flipping several Republican holdouts, but the temporary measure became the path forward as final negotiations remained unresolved.
Thune said the June extension would allow Congress to coordinate with the White House on reforms for a longer-term authorization, saying lawmakers would “get to work in earnest” to find an agreement “you actually are able to do a long term extension of the authorization with,” as quoted by AP. The AP report also described that negotiations had been complicated by separate legislative efforts, including additional provisions tied to winning support that were not expected to pass in the Senate.