The Senate on Thursday killed a House-passed reform package and replaced it with a clean 45-day extension of the nation's warrantless surveillance authority — kicking the fight over Americans' Fourth Amendment rights down the road for the second time in a month.
The House passed the measure 261-111, with the patch now heading to President Trump, who has pushed for reauthorization.
🚨 JUST NOW: US House has officially PASSED the authorization for FISA, kicking the expiration deadline down 6 weeks, sending it to President Trump — 261-111
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 30, 2026
Speaker Johnson has now successfully passed the mostly-DHS funding bill, budget resolution, FISA and the FARM BILL in… pic.twitter.com/tC1iA3dqRY
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) lets U.S. intelligence agencies collect communications of foreign nationals abroad, but because those targets often communicate with Americans, it also sweeps in U.S. citizens' calls, texts, and emails without a warrant. That's the fight Congress has refused to finish for years.
This is the second stopgap in a month; lawmakers already punted with a 10-day patch in mid-April. This time, the Senate rejected a House proposal over an attached provision that would have barred the Federal Reserve from creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a provision that, fairly or not, gave the Senate cover to walk away from the reform package entirely. Rather than negotiate, the Senate passed a clean extension by unanimous consent and dared the House to accept it or let the program go dark.
Read More: FISA Reauthorized for Just Two Weeks Following Some Republican Push Back
Speaker Johnson spent weeks trying to unify Republicans behind a longer-term plan, but couldn't. The House package the Senate killed wasn't a radical document; it included concrete accountability measures that stopped well short of a full warrant requirement: attorney approval before searches of Americans' data, written justifications submitted to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) for each query, and criminal penalties of up to five years for intentional misuse.
Intelligence officials counter that a full probable cause warrant standard would kneecap counterterrorism and espionage operations, an argument privacy hawks largely accept, which is why the House package didn't demand one. GOP Rep. Brad Knott (NC-13) put the tension plainly:
"FISA is undeniably useful in protecting America against foreign attacks. If not adequately checked, FISA powers will facilitate the violation of American citizens' Fourth Amendment rights.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) called it a necessary pause, a characterization that landed poorly with the House conservatives who'd actually passed a reform bill the day before.
Even across the aisle, the civil liberties argument found allies.
"Nothing about protecting our safety should prevent us from protecting our rights. We can have both," said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the House Judiciary Committee ranking member.
House conservatives made little effort to hide their frustration.
"Look, I'll just add the Senate, supposedly the greatest deliberative body in the world, is yet again, not deliberating. What do they do? They just do a consent to kick the can down the road. Here we are again. We're gonna have another 45 days. So the question is, this time when we get together, will we run a bill through committee, through Judiciary, Intel [committees], work with the chairmen and deliver a product that actually answers the questions the American people want us to answer to prevent spying and warrantless surveillance," Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said after the vote.
The program now runs through June 15.
When Congress returns from recess in mid-May, Republicans will have to decide whether to actually legislate or hand the Senate another clean extension to rubber-stamp.
Unchecked government surveillance and limited government don't coexist. At some point, Congress has to choose.
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