Republicans Poised To Allow Continued Unfettered Government Spying On American Citizens

House Republicans cleared the way to renewing a surveillance tool that allows the government to spy on American citizens’ communications in a Wednesday vote.

Lawmakers adopted the procedural measure in a 216-210 vote, which cleared the way for Congress to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) section 702, which allows for warrantless surveillance of foreign nationals’ communications with Americans ahead of a Thursday deadline. Republican leaders have engaged in lengthy negotiations with members who wanted to amend section 702 to add restrictions to the surveillance of U.S. citizens’ communications.

Section 702 allows the government to collect and search American citizens’ data without a warrant if they were in contact with targeted noncitizens located outside of the U.S. It facilitates tracking foreign intelligence, cyber threats and terrorism, which often collect Americans’ data in the process.

House Republicans laid out several guardrails in their latest proposal to protect civil liberties, though it did not include a warrant requirement for searches of Americans’ information. They also advanced a farm bill and a budget blueprint to fund immigration agencies, which remained closed during the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.

Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Lauren Boebert of Colorado introduced the “Surveillance Accountability Act” on Thursday, which would require federal law enforcement to show probable cause before accessing Americans’ private digital data.

The FBI conducted more than 200,000 warrantless searches on Americans’ information under FISA section 702 in 2022, according to an Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) report.

Trump called for the passage of FISA section 702 in an April 15 statement, though he spent years opposing the program until the lead up to the Iran war. Weeks before the U.S. entered the conflict on Feb. 28, administration officials arranged a meeting with lawmakers in early February to promote FISA programs without changes. (RELATED: Why Isn’t The GOP Using FISA As Leverage For SAVE America Act?)

In 2024, Trump called on Republicans to “KILL FISA” because it was used illegally to spy on his campaign. A DOJ inspector general’s report found “significant inaccuracies” in the FBI applications for FISA warrants against a Trump campaign adviser, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) later conceded that two of the four orders were invalid.

🚨 JUST NOW: After HOURS on the House floor and convincing from Speaker Johnson, the House PASSES a resolution advancing FISA, the Senate-passed DHS funding resolution, and the Farm Bill

This comes after as many as SEVEN Republicans were NAYs and several had to be convinced to… pic.twitter.com/pLdUSRmsYE

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 29, 2026

Trump stated in March and April that he believed the surveillance system was needed to prevent terrorist attacks and protect the military campaign, according to The Record.

“The fact is, whether you like FISA or not, it is extremely important to our Military,” Trump said in March. “I have spoken to many Generals about this, and they consider it vital. Not one said, even tacitly, that they can do without it — especially right now with our brilliant Military Operation in Iran.”

The DOJ appealed a ruling on April 16 that limited the use of certain tools to collect Americans’ information. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) issued a March ruling that extends FISA’s ability to collect emails and phone calls through March 2027, though intelligence agencies like the FBI and CIA  cannot use filtering systems that refine search results to examine the communications of specific individuals who contact foreigners.

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