WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate approved a short-term renewal until April 30 of a controversial surveillance program used by U.S. spy agencies, following a chaotic, post-midnight scramble in the House to keep the authority from expiring.
The measure cleared the Senate by voice vote, without a formal roll call, as Congress raced to meet a Monday deadline and send it to President Donald Trump for his signature. The stopgap came after House Republican leaders unveiled a revised five-year extension late Thursday — a sharp pivot from the clean 18-month renewal Trump and GOP leaders had pushed all week. But the Republican bills collapsed, failing to advance.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said leaders were trying to keep their options open as they assess next steps. “We’ll be preparing accordingly,” he said.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a longtime critic of the surveillance program, initially slowed the Senate’s morning action as he pressed for changes. Wyden said he has never seen this level of support on both sides of the political aisle — and in both chambers of Congress — for real revisions to the surveillance tool, although he did not stand in the way of a short-term extension, for now.
“It’s not making a choice between security and liberty. That’s garbage,” Wyden said. “We’re going to show that the two aren’t mutually exclusive.”
It’s all setting up another showdown, in a matter of weeks, as Congress dives into the surveillance tool that pits Americans' privacy rights against what U.S. officials have long said is a uniquely effective program for the security of the country.
Chaotic, late-night House votes end in failure
House Republican leaders and Trump had spent the week trying to line up support for an 18-month renewal of the spy tool with no changes. But holdouts held firm, forcing a late-night scramble.
GOP leaders in the House rushed lawmakers back into session late Thursday for a series of back-to-back votes that fell apart before pivoting to a stopgap to keep the program from expiring Monday.
First they came out with a new plan that would have extended the program for five years, with revisions. Among the changes were new provisions to ensure that only FBI attorneys could authorize queries on U.S. people, and to require the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to review such cases, said Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., during the debate.
That plan also would enhance criminal penalties on those who unlawfully conduct such inquiries or disclose the surveillance information, Scott said. It provides a way for members of Congress and certain staff to access the proceedings of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court that handle such requests.
But the final product, a 14-page amendment, did not go far enough for some holdouts in either party.
GOP leaders then tried to salvage a shorter 18-month renewal that Trump had demanded and Johnson had previously backed. It failed as well, with some 20 Republicans joining most Democrats in blocking its advance.
Shortly after 2 a.m. they quickly agreed to the 10-day extension.
“We were very close tonight,” Johnson said after the late-night action.
But Democrats assailed the middle-of-the-night voting as amateur hour. “Are you kidding me? Who the hell is running this place?” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., during a fiery floor debate.
Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, a member of the House Freedom Caucus that helped stall votes throughout the week, said the outcome was predictable after the procedural votes fell short.
“We warned them that this was gonna happen,” Ogles said. “Unfortunately, here we are at 2 in the morning.”
Surveillance program fight is a debate over privacy and security
At the center of the standoff is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and other agencies to collect and analyze vast amounts of overseas communications without a warrant. In doing so, they can incidentally sweep up communications involving Americans who interact with foreign targets.
U.S. officials say the authority is critical to disrupting terrorist plots, cyber intrusions and foreign espionage.
Extending the program is a recurring fight, as lawmakers weigh civil liberties concerns against intelligence officials’ warnings about national security risks.
“There are a lot of opinions,” Johnson said Thursday. “We want to make sure that we have this very important tool for national security, but we also do it in a way that jealously guards constitutional rights.”
Opponents of the surveillance tool point to past misuses. FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when searching intelligence related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and racial justice protests in 2020, according to a 2024 court order.
Trump and his allies had lobbied aggressively all week for a clean renewal of the program, without changes.
A group of Republicans traveled to the White House on Tuesday, and on Wednesday CIA Director John Ratcliffe spoke directly with GOP lawmakers. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Thursday there had “been negotiations late into the night with the White House and some of our members.”
“I am asking Republicans to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean Bill to the floor,” Trump wrote on Truth Social this week. “We need to stick together.” They didn't.
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