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One of the government’s most powerful surveillance tools will go dark this weekend, and lawmakers aren’t sure what that means for the nation’s intelligence-gathering authorities.
Democrats rejected attempts in the House and Senate to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in an act of defiance against President Donald Trump, who tapped housing chief Bill Pulte to temporarily oversee the nation’s intelligence services.
But there are differing trains of thought on the ramifications of failing to renew the program. Some lawmakers argued that an extension was not necessary given that FISA courts had authorized continued intelligence gathering until March 2027.
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Others say that it opens up the possibility for telecommunications and major tech companies like Google to decline handing over information without explicit direction from Congress.
“We don’t know the answer to that,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said. “But it is, obviously, a high-risk proposition.”
Boiled down, the Section 702 program allows the U.S. government to collect intelligence on foreigners abroad who are using U.S. communication systems, and it serves as a major part of Trump’s daily intelligence briefing.
But it also sweeps up communications from Americans who are talking to foreign suspects — a key issue that threatened reauthorization among privacy hawks in both parties well before Pulte’s appointment.
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“That is a gray area, and it’s one of the things that we’re going to have to work through,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told Fox News when asked whether providers would still continue to share information with the government if the program was not authorized.
“What is clear is that we are going to have to address the issue of extending surveillance authority legislatively. And the problem is that the Trump administration has decided to toss this hand grenade into the middle of sensitive negotiations,” he added, referring to Pulte.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., contended that there were already thousands of FISA certifications approved, it’s just that new certifications wouldn’t be allowed until the program was reauthorized.
“It’s not like that will be the end of our ability to surveil foreign terrorists,” Kennedy said.
The standoff is not expected to end soon. Trump’s decision to nominate former Securities and Exchanges Commission Chairman Jay Clayton to serve as the permanent director of national intelligence also failed to soften Democrats’ opposition.
Many lawmakers remain unwilling to back a renewal of the program while Pulte continues serving in the acting role.
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“Nobody disputes that FISA has been used to stop terrorist attacks on our homeland here,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Thursday. “And why would anybody vote to end that tool is beside me.”
Meanwhile, the House is scheduled to begin a week-long recess next week, meaning that even if there is a resolution in the Senate in the coming week, the program will likely remain dark until they return.
The program’s expiration marks the first extended lapse since it was enacted in 2008. The Trump administration has argued that the surveillance authority is a critical national security tool, crediting it with helping foil a mass-casualty terror plot targeting a 2024 Taylor Swift concert in Austria and combat North Korean hackers, among other successes.
The uncharted territory comes amid a heightened threat environment as the war with Iran continues and large-scale events, such as the World Cup and America 250 celebrations, are beginning to ramp up.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., argued on the Senate floor in his bid to extend the program that there was a bipartisan bill waiting to be passed, but in the meantime, lawmakers should pause the partisan animosity and support an extension.
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“If we don’t extend it for at least a few weeks while we continue to try to work on our differences, the consequences could be severe,” Cotton said. “The consequences, to be frank, could be fatal.”
Still, Democrats counter that had Trump not appointed Pulte, or at least waited until the reauthorization was completed, Congress would not be in the current logjam.
“I cannot stress enough to you that none of this, none of this needed to happen,” Warner said.
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