The House failed to extend a key surveillance law Thursday, effectively ensuring it will expire Friday night over warnings from Republican lawmakers and national security officials.
The proposal, rejected on a 218-198 vote, would have extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act through July 2. It would have been the latest in a series of punts Congress has passed in recent months.
But a Democratic uproar over President Donald Trump’s decision to tap political ally Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence tanked any chances for passage. The extension — put on the floor under a fast-track method that required a two-thirds-majority vote — failed to garner even a simple majority, winning the support of only seven Democrats.
Nineteen Republicans also voted to reject a punt of Section 702, which allows U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on targets abroad without a warrant. Surveillance under the program also sometimes captures communications with Americans, and some lawmakers in both parties want to put safeguards on how that material is searched.
The House is not expected to vote again until June 23, effectively ensuring Section 702 will expire for the first time since it was enacted in 2008.
Speaker Mike Johnson blamed Democrats for the impending lapse in comments to reporters after the vote, calling their decision to oppose the temporary patch “shameful.”
Many Hill Republicans believe, despite the congressional failure, the Trump administration can and will continue to operate the program for at least some period of time, possibly under a forthcoming executive order. But tech providers could mount legal challenges to the program if it expires, and national security officials fear that could temporarily limit visibility into surveillance targets under the law.
Asked if an executive order would be enough to keep Americans safe in the interim, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in an interview, “Hopefully it is.”
“Anybody who votes ‘no’ is casting a dangerous vote to put American lives at risk,” Scalise said, adding that Trump and his national security deputies are “going to do what they have to do to keep the country safe.”
Scalise said the burden for finding a solution lies with the Senate “to figure out some kind of path.” A procedural vote in the other chamber that would have set up passage of an extension failed last week.
Negotiators there had been circling on a deal allowing for a three-year extension of Section 702 authorities, but those talks collapsed after Trump announced his intention to appoint Pulte, a housing official with no national security experience.
“There’s really not a negotiation until the president backs away from Bill Pulte — and that is a near-unanimous belief in this building, that is not a Democratic thing,” said Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top House Intelligence Democrat. “Bill Pulte needs to leave the stage, and then we’ll go right back to where we were a week ago and get something done.”
He compared the appointment to Trump’s prior nomination of former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as FBI director last year, sparking a bipartisan uproar: “Eventually the president realized that was a nonstarter, and I just hope that happens sooner rather than later.”
House Democratic leaders encouraged members to vote against the reauthorization Thursday, arguing “meaningful reforms” are necessary.
“Section 702 is a critical foreign intelligence authority, but we cannot in good conscience vote for reauthorization without significant reforms to protect both national security and the constitutional privacy rights of Americans,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other leaders said in a joint statement.
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