Cybersecurity Policy Report, Surveillance Reauthorization Stalls in Senate, Inches Forward in House, (Apr 28, 2026)
Attempts to reauthorize section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) before its expiration on Thursday faced further roadblocks today in the Senate and advanced slowly in the House.
At CPR’s deadline, the House Rules Committee was still sifting through potential amendments to determine which should accompany section 702 reauthorization legislation on the House floor. The committee’s Republican majority rejected amendments proposed by their Republican colleagues that would have allowed the House to debate whether to impose a warrant requirement on federal authorities when they use section 702 for domestic surveillance.
Section 702 empowers U.S. intelligence agencies, with the help of U.S. service providers, to monitor the communications of foreigners who are overseas and considered national security threats. However, 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.
The underlying bill being considered by the House Rules Committee, the Foreign Intelligence Accountability Act (S 1318), would reauthorize FISA section 702 for three years and impose new accountability measures on federal authorities’ use of section 702 for domestic surveillance. But it would not require warrants (CPR, April 24).
A member of the committee, Rep. Joe Neguse (D., Colo.), noted that previous FISA reauthorization legislation sent to the House floor by the committee failed because significant numbers of Democrats and Republicans supported a warrant requirement. The result was a 2:10 a.m. vote for a short-term reauthorization bill to prevent the law from expiring (CPR, April 17).
“Do you have any expectation that the outcome is going to be different this time, or are we going to be on the floor at midnight having the exact same experience that we had 10 days ago,” Rep. Neguse asked.
Senate delays vote. The Senate had been moving toward consideration of its FISA reauthorization bill, S 4344, which would reauthorize section 702 for three years without significant changes. But like House leaders, Senate leaders face a bipartisan contingent that wants to at least debate a warrant requirement. So House Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) successfully sought unanimous consent to delay a vote on a motion to proceed to S 4344. The vote would occur no later than Friday.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) said he welcomed the delay as a chance to muster more support for a warrant requirement. “The Senate is now delaying a vote on FISA because members are waking up to the fact that this surveillance authority is too dangerous to hand any president without new reforms,” he said.
“If there were the votes to advance this bill today, we’d be voting,” Sen. Wyden added. “When it comes to reauthorizing section 702, I’m here to offer the judgment that the only path forward is reform.”
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