House Approves Three-Year Renewal of FISA Section 702 Amid Partisan Divide

On Wednesday, the U.S. House voted 235-191 to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for three years, extending the warrantless foreign-intelligence collection authority past its April 30 deadline. The bill adds modest reforms, expanding the pool of lawmakers reviewing court filings and requiring supervisory approval for FBI searches of Americans.

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Section 702 permits the government to target non-U.S. persons abroad and incidentally collect communications of Americans who contact those targets. The program was last renewed in 2024 for 18 months at the request of the Trump administration. Critics have long called for a warrant requirement before the government can examine any U.S. person data derived from the program.

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• 147 Democrats previously supported renewal; only 42 voted for it this session.

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• 88 Republicans opposed the prior renewal; 22 opposed this time.

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• The FBI reported 9,089 U.S.-person queries in the year after the 2024 renewal, with 127 non-compliant queries, indicating a compliance rate of roughly 98.6 %.

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Democratic leaders emphasized the need for stronger safeguards, arguing that the administration’s track record warrants vigilance. Republican leaders highlighted the program’s proven utility in protecting lives and pointed to recent reforms, such as monthly FBI reporting to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s civil-liberties division and increased penalties for misuse. Senate leadership signaled that the bill’s fate hinges on whether the attached central-bank-digital-currency (CBDC) provision remains.

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Privacy advocates and a growing cohort of Democrats warned that Section 702 allows unchecked surveillance of Americans and that the current reforms fall short of a warrant requirement. Rep. Jamie Raskin warned that the renewal “blessing” enables abuse of private communications. Critics also expressed distrust of FBI Director Kash Patel, noting a lack of evidence of misuse but urging hyper-vigilance.

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• “This bill is a three-year permission slip and blessing for the Trump administration and the next administration to keep abusing the sweeping FISA Section 702 surveillance authority to spy on American citizens’ private communications, and to violate the privacy rights of the people,” — Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-MD

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• “It ain’t the same FISA,” — Rep. Jim Jordan, R-OH

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• “In my decade on the House Intelligence Committee, I’ve seen countless, countless instances where the intelligence obtained through Section 702 quite literally saved lives.” — Rep. Jim Himes, D-CT

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• “) said Tuesday that FISA is “dead on arrival” if it included the CBDC provision.” — Sen. John Thune, R-SD

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The renewed Section 702 bill now moves to the Senate, where leaders must decide whether to strip the attached CBDC provision. House leaders have secured a fast-track suspension of the rules process through Friday to expedite Senate action. If the Senate removes the CBDC language, the bill could return to the House for final passage; otherwise, it faces an uncertain future.

The Hill