Congress Delays Surveillance Reform Again

Congress has once again kicked the can down the road on Section 702 surveillance reform, passing a short-term reauthorization that buys lawmakers just 45 more days to hash out a deal. The extension, approved Thursday, keeps the controversial wiretapping authority alive but punts the most contentious debates , including whether to require warrants for searches of Americans’ communications , down the line.

The House passed its version of the reauthorization Wednesday evening, but the bill left out the hotly debated warrant requirement. Instead, it included a provision blocking the Federal Reserve from issuing Central Bank Digital Currencies, a policy rider that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) immediately labeled a nonstarter. “Three weeks is more than enough time to negotiate a reform bill,” Thune said on the Senate floor Thursday. “That is, if members are serious about negotiating.”

Whether lawmakers are serious remains an open question. Senators clashed over the length of the extension, with Ron Wyden (D-OR) pushing for a three-week window while Tom Cotton (R-AR) insisted on 45 days, citing an upcoming recess and the importance of Section 702 to a recent U. S. military operation against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The Senate ultimately settled on 45 days, and the House approved the extension Thursday afternoon with a 261-111 vote.

The path forward looks rocky. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) lambasted House leadership on Wednesday for blocking amendments and limiting debate on the reauthorization bill, calling the last two days of negotiations “a dumpster fire from a process standpoint.” He described a chaotic scene: members waiting around through the night, last-minute cancellations of meetings, and Republican infighting that prevented any real discussion.

“These bills are take it or leave it. The leadership dictates every letter, every comma,” McGovern said. “This is no way to run this place. It is no way to run a banana stand. It is pathetic, it is a disgrace, and the Speaker and the Majority ought to be embarrassed by what is going on here. You’re screwing over your own members.”

Some Republicans defended the process, arguing the House bill already included meaningful reforms. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who previously supported a warrant requirement for queries involving U. S. persons, said, “It ain’t the same FISA.” The bill does establish criminal penalties for intentional abuse of 702 queries, requires FBI attorneys to preapprove all queries of U. S. persons, mandates an independent audit by the Government Accountability Office, and updates Department of Justice procedures to let members attend FISA court hearings. It also includes the unrelated provision barring the Federal Reserve from issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency, based on Rep. Tom Emmer’s (R-MN) Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act and attached by Rep. French Hill (R-AR).

Privacy advocates disagree that these changes are sufficient. Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, called the House bill “incredibly disappointing.” He said, “This bill is empty-calories through and through. It contains no warrant for querying Americans’ messages, and no meaningful reforms of any kind.”

Congress now faces a June 14, 2026 deadline to finalize reforms to Section 702. If the past few weeks are any guide, the next round of negotiations will be anything but smooth.