Cybersecurity Policy Report, ‘Clean’ Reauthorization of Surveillance Law Wins Another Key Backer, (Mar 19, 2026)

By Tom Leithauser

Another key lawmaker, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford (R., Ark.), today endorsed the Trump administration’s plan for a “clean” reauthorization of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Section 702, which expires April 20 unless Congress reauthorizes it, empowers U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor the communications of foreigners who are overseas and considered national security threats. But Americans’ communications are often swept up in section 702 surveillance when they communicate with a foreign intelligence target, and those communications can be searched by federal authorities under certain circumstances without a warrant, which civil liberties advocates describe as “warrantless surveillance.”

Some lawmakers aim to amend section 702 to require federal authorities to obtain a probable-cause warrant before accessing the communications of Americans collected under section 702.

But Rep. Crawford told a panel of the nation’s top intelligence officials at a hearing on worldwide threats that it was his committee’s job to “authorize your authorities and resources and oversee their implementation.”

“One of those authorities is FISA 702, which expires in just over a month,” he said. “The President is seeking an 18-month clean extension to provide more time to assess the implementation of the 56 reform measures included in the last authorization.”

Rep. Crawford said he was working with Reps. Jim Himes (D., Conn.), the Intelligence Committee’s ranking member, and Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to implement the president’s request. Rep. Jordan, however, is an advocate of adding a warrant requirement to section 702. Rep. Himes’ position is unclear, and his office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Yesterday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also endorsed the president’s plan (CPR, March 18).

At today’s hearing, John Ratcliffe, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said he was “heartened” by Rep. Crawford’s support of the clean reauthorization plan. Intelligence officials who have served under both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations “are in support of FISA 702 in its current form,” Mr. Ratcliffe told the committee.

“I wish the reauthorization was longer than 18 months … so regardless of who the president is in the future, he or she would have the benefit of a tool that’s indispensable,” he added.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who advocated for a warrant requirement when she was in Congress, nevertheless said she would support the president’s request. “That is the president’s position,” she said, “and that is the position of the intelligence community.”

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