Trump, Johnson meet as FISA Section 702 deadline looms

Section 702 lets U.S. intelligence agencies collect foreigners’ communications abroad, but the same authority has long fueled backlash because Americans’ messages can be swept up and searched without a warrant. That tension came to a head at the White House, where Donald Trump met House Speaker Mike Johnson as Congress scrambled to keep the surveillance tool alive before the current extension expires on June 12.

The legal clock has been ticking since Congress reauthorized Section 702 in April 2024 through the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which set the program to sunset on April 20, 2026. Lawmakers then approved a 45-day extension in April to avoid an immediate lapse, but the measure only bought time. Intelligence officials and members of Congress have warned that if the deadline passes without action, the United States could face the first-ever lapse in the legal authorization for a program they describe as central to counterterrorism and foreign-intelligence work.

The House tried to break the stalemate twice. On April 29, it passed broader reauthorization legislation by a 235-191 vote after approving a separate 45-day extension just hours before an earlier stopgap was due to expire at midnight. But the Senate later failed to advance the bill, after Democrats revolted over Trump’s decision to install Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence. Early Friday morning, Senate Democrats blocked a motion to begin debate on extending the nation’s enhanced surveillance authorities, arguing that Pulte’s appointment had made renewal far harder.

The fight has exposed a sharp split inside the Republican Party. National-security hawks and the White House have pushed for a clean extension, arguing that Section 702 remains essential to stopping terrorism and other threats. Conservative critics, echoing years of MAGA-era distrust of government surveillance, say the program enables warrantless access to Americans’ communications through backdoor searches and demands tighter privacy protections and stronger limits on abuse.

House Intelligence Committee Democrats, including Jim Himes and Jamie Raskin, have said the Pulte appointment has deepened concerns about oversight and made support for renewal even more difficult. The standoff now leaves Congress with only days to act, and the pressure is rising on both parties to decide whether to preserve one of the government’s most powerful surveillance authorities or let it lapse for the first time.