Thursday’s Failure Should Tell House Leadership to Open the Process and Allow Debate and Amendments on FISA Section 702

On Thursday morning, the House voted against Leadership’s short-term clean reauthorization of FISA Section 702. Leadership once again stiff-armed any opportunity to propose amendments with badly needed reforms to protect Americans’ privacy from domestic spying.

This strategy marks a significant break with past Section 702 debates. In 2024, for example, House Members were given the chance to vote on a warrant requirement for Section 702 U.S. person searches, which nearly passed in a 212-212 tie vote. This year, what is clearly now a House majority in favor of enacting reforms and placing guardrails on domestic surveillance has been sidelined, multiple times now.

The result, predictably, is what we saw this morning. After multiple attempts, it should be clear to all that stiff-arming meaningful debate and necessary reforms is a failed strategy.

Having demonstrated what doesn’t work, the House can now take a new path. There is no need to rush it. Members in both the House and Senate should know that when the statute behind Section 702 expires on Friday, intelligence collection will still continue. The surveillance orders of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court are in effect – and will remain in effect – until March 2027.

That is how long Congress has to reauthorize Section 702 without in any way jeopardizing national security.

Looking ahead, House Members must be able to vote on a warrant requirement for Section 702, warrants for the purchased data of Americans, and the removal of the so-called “Make Everyone a Spy” provision that obligates most businesses and even houses of worship to assist the NSA in spying on their tenants, customers, and congregants.

These are not trivial issues for Members or their constituents.

•  A 2023 bipartisan poll showed that 76 percent of Americans support warrant requirements before the government can access Americans’ international communications. Some 80 percent support warrant requirements before the government can access location records, internet search histories, and other highly personal digital records.

The time has come for Leadership to respect the majority – the majority in the House and the majority of the American people.
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“I am hopeful that the House is now in a place where it will move forward in a constructive debate that will lead to long-needed reforms,” said Bob Goodlatte, former Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a PPSA Senior Policy Advisor. “It is time to allow for such a full debate and votes on reform amendments.”