The House of Representatives enters another recess period Thursday (is it me, or do normal people get nowhere near the kind of off-time that they do?). Lawmakers, however, left without passing an extension to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), meaning the nation’s warrantless spy powers will expire Friday.
Section 702 gives legal authority for the government — most importantly, the National Security Agency and the FBI — to conduct warrantless surveillance on non‑Americans located outside the U.S.
The vote was 198-218 against the extension, with seven Democrats voting for it and 19 Republicans saying “nay.”
The Democrats have hurt feelings because President Trump named Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte as Acting Director of National Intelligence, replacing Tulsi Gabbard, who is stepping down after her husband was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer. Pulte is on the Dems' Bad Boy list because he referred Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and NY Attorney General Letitia James to the Justice Department for mortgage fraud.
🚨 NOW: The US House has REJECTED a short-term FISA extension supported by President Trump, set to expire Friday, 198-218
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 11, 2026
Democrats are blocking it after Trump selected Bill Pulte for Acting Director of National Intelligence pic.twitter.com/8bGr2w1J23
RELATED: Bill Pulte Jumps From Hard-Charging Housing Regulator to Nation's Top Spy Chief
Congress Punts on FISA Reform Again, Extends Warrantless Surveillance As Senate Kills House Fix
The FISA program has faced criticism from all sides before, as many feel it is too overreaching and an invasion of privacy. We also saw how easily it can be abused with the Carter Page fiasco, where in 2019 the DOJ’s inspector general found the FBI’s fraudulent Crossfire Hurricane investigation into supposed Trump-Russia collusion resulted in improper surveillance of the Trump campaign aide. (That spying was "justified" by FISA's Title I, which permits surveillance of Americans if a warrant is obtained. Section 702 was not in play.)
House Speaker Mike Johnson (LA-04) was asked if he would attempt another vote. There’s no point, he answered:
“We passed a three-year extension on April 29. It is sitting in the hopper over there as a live bill. Just now, I attempted to pass a short-term extension for three weeks, clean extension, no changes to the law, just to make sure that the people are not subjected to great harm, and the Democrats — 199 of them — voted against it and applauded themselves as they left the building,” Johnson said. “What would be the point of me going through this exercise over and over? The House has done every single thing.“
Johnson needed a two-thirds vote to pass the legislation under a fast-track process. He faced a dynamic also difficult within a GOP conference, where many members have also demanded reforms to the spy program.
Feelings on FISA run strong:
As millions of Americans gather for large events and summer celebrations, Democrats just BLOCKED the FISA Section 702 national security statute, hampering our ability to detect foreign terrorist threats.
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) June 11, 2026
This comes after Democrats shut down Homeland Security.
This is a stunning… pic.twitter.com/dm75S41Jmu
As millions of Americans gather for large events and summer celebrations, Democrats just BLOCKED the FISA Section 702 national security statute, hampering our ability to detect foreign terrorist threats.
This comes after Democrats shut down Homeland Security.
This is a stunning and dangerous fact: Democrats are now willing to put petty politics over public safety.
Contrast that with another Republican, Rep. Tim Burchett (TN-02):
We take an oath to uphold the Constitution. FISA violates that. I voted no. pic.twitter.com/k1em4dSQVh
— Tim Burchett (@timburchett) June 11, 2026
As Burchett notes, the Biden administration regularly abused FISA, and that is cause for concern. Whether you’re for it or against it, or somewhere in between, Section 702 will no longer be in effect come Friday. We’ll have to wait and see if lawmakers are able to pound out a compromise when they return from recess.
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