As US spy laws set to expire, lawmakers are divided over protecting Americans from warrantless surveillance

A long-standing law that has allowed US intelligence agencies to collect and analyze vast amounts of communications abroad without requiring search warrants is set to expire next week, and lawmakers are at odds over whether to allow the Trump administration to extend it without any changes.

Known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the law allows the National Security Agency, CIA, FBI and other federal intelligence agencies to record overseas communications flowing through the United States without requiring individual search warrants.

In many sweeps of the world’s communications, the agencies have also collected untold amounts of information, including phone and email records, about Americans who communicate with people under surveillance overseas. This data is collected despite constitutional protections that should protect Americans and the people of the United States from government surveillance.

But before the law expires on April 20, a bipartisan, independent group of House lawmakers and Senators are calling for major changes to FISA, saying the changes are “critical” to protecting Americans’ privacy rights.

Some lawmakers are calling for sweeping reforms following years of scandals and abuses of surveillance across successive US administrations, while others are holding their vote to advance their political agendas by attaching provisions to other laws.

Social media posts from President Trump suggest that, as of this week, the White House is serious about the idea of ​​passing a simple reauthorization without changes to the law.

Late Friday night, House Republicans approved extending FISA until April 30 as a stopgap measure to allow more time for negotiations. The Senate, which is scheduled to reconvene on Monday, will still need to approve the bill with a majority vote to pass the temporary extension.

The bipartisan legislation is the Government Surveillance Reform Act, introduced in Congress in March by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mike Lee (R-UT) and others, aimed at reducing some of the government’s warrantless surveillance programs. Among other things, lawmakers are seeking provisions to prevent federal agencies from using a “backdoor search” loophole that allows them to track the communications of Americans without obtaining a search warrant first.

Another key provision would prevent federal agencies from buying commercially available data on Americans from data brokers — a practice the US government has long said does not require court approval.

App developers collect vast amounts of location data from people using smartphone apps, then sell that information to vendors, who in turn sell that data to governments and militaries. FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed at a congressional hearing in March that the FBI is buying Americans’ location information without seeking court approval.

Both Republicans and Democrats are reportedly keen to close the loophole, which allows spy agencies to buy commercial data and use AI models to analyze billions of location points. This is currently also a sticking point in the US government’s negotiations with Anthropic and OpenAI regarding unrestricted use of their tools.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Project on Government Oversight are among other privacy groups that support the bipartisan bill.

It is not yet clear whether the bill will pass, but lawmakers say legislative changes are needed, especially as technological advances make it easier for tech companies and governments to track people than ever before.

Wyden, the longest-serving attorney to sit on any federal intelligence committee and a well-known privacy hawk, warned that many lawmakers are not fully aware that many U.S. administrations have long relied on a secretive, formal interpretation of Section 702 that “directly affects the privacy rights of the American people.” Wyden said the matter remains confidential, but urged the government to release the information so lawmakers can discuss it.

In a letter to X on Thursday, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY, 4th) said he would vote against the reauthorization of Section 702, after he echoed Wyden in raising concerns about how the FBI was interpreting the law.

Although Section 702 expires on Monday, it does not mark the end of the US government’s surveillance powers.

While lawmakers in the US House of Representatives have yet to reach a consensus on renewing or changing Section 702, a legal quirk could allow US surveillance to continue until March 2027 unless Congress intervenes — even if the law expires.

That’s because the secret court in Washington, DC that oversees the government’s FISA compliance, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), asks the government every year to confirm that its actions are legal. That rubber stamp allows the government to collect phone calls and emails for a 12-month period, effectively ensuring that surveillance programs that rely on FISA’s statutory powers will continue for at least a year.

The US government also has other surveillance powers that are not overseen by Congress, such as Executive Order 12333, a secret presidential directive that places most US government surveillance outside the United States. It also holds an unknown amount of confidential communications of Americans.