The House on Friday voted by unanimous consent to extend a controversial surveillance program until April 30.
Earlier in the morning GOP leaders had pushed for either a five-year renewal or the 18-month renewal President Trump had demanded, but both votes tanked.
The stop-gap measure was pushed through and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was set to expire Monday, now heads to the Senate.
The tool allows U.S. intelligence agencies to intercept the electronic communications of foreign nationals located outside of the United States.
Like past reauthorizations, FISA 702’s renewal has sparked a protracted debate on Capitol Hill over if and how the tool should be modified.
Some of the nearly 350,000 targets whose communications are collected under FISA 702 authority are in touch with Americans, whose calls, texts and emails could end up in the trove of information available to the federal government for review.
For almost two decades, privacy-minded lawmakers from both parties have sought to reform the program to require specific court approval before federal law enforcement or intelligence agents are allowed to review an American’s information.
The intelligence community has argued that would inhibit the efficacy of the tool and endanger national security.
The fight over those changes — responsible for weeks of turmoil in the House — ultimately resulted in limited modifications that failed to satisfy privacy hawks.
If FISA 702 is allowed to lapse, intelligence collection could continue but would likely be subject to lawsuits from the technology and telecommunications communications who are compelled to provide the communications to the government.
