The US surveillance law is set to expire for the first time after lawmakers rejected Trump’s controversial choice to lead the spy agencies.

The House of Representatives failed to renew the US government’s warrantless surveillance law before it expired on Friday, all but ensuring it would expire for the first time, as lawmakers protested the nomination of a controversial Trump ally to oversee America’s intelligence agencies.

The House voted 218-198 on the bill, which required a two-thirds majority to pass; 19 Republican lawmakers voted against it. According to Politico, the next vote is scheduled for June 23.

The espionage law, officially known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), broadly allows US intelligence agencies to collect vast amounts of information, including on Americans, to identify foreign criminals, spies and potential terrorists. Also known as Section 702 for its place on the law books, this law has been considered vital to national security by both Democrats and Republicans for years.

Bipartisan efforts to renew the decades-old spy law have stalled in recent weeks, and lawmakers have been able to extend temporary extensions to continue negotiations.

Critics have been calling for a major overhaul of FISA, citing abuses of the law by many US administrations. Lawmakers from both parties have sought provisions that would require spy agencies to first obtain a court warrant before being allowed access to Americans’ private communications, although the Trump administration has sought reauthorization of the law.

But a new obstacle arose last week in the Trump administration, when the President appointed one of his allies, Bill Pulte, as acting director of US intelligence. This Cabinet-level position oversees twelve government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.

The appointment sparked fears that Pulte would use the position to attack Trump’s political opponents and usurp the top intelligence office he will hold. Politico reports that Pulte’s appointment was “a clear sign of the recent situation” within the White House, and described Trump as increasingly divisive and grievance-driven.

Democrats have warned that appointing Pulte would be a greater threat to US national security than allowing the law to expire, according to the Washington Post.

Pulte, who has no intelligence or national security experience, was to begin work on June 19, along with his current role leading the American housing association. But on Thursday, the administration rescinded Pulte’s nomination, replacing him with Jay Clayton, who currently serves as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and was previously the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But by the time news of Clayton’s nomination broke, many lawmakers had left the capitol for a weeklong recess, making any last-minute deal to save FISA impossible.

Tapping fiber cables with tech titans

Section 702 of FISA first gained attention during a surveillance scandal in 2013 involving the National Security Agency and close US allies. Former contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked thousands of documents to journalists, revealing the scope of US surveillance activities around the world, including on Americans even though they are supposed to be constitutionally exempt from US surveillance.

Using programs authorized under Section 702, the NSA used this legal power to collect vast amounts of the world’s communications flowing through undersea fiber optic cables, which form the backbone of the Internet. The NSA also accessed extensive user data from major tech companies such as Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft under a program called PRISM.

While the law itself will expire on Friday, the US government’s spying powers and programs are unlikely to expire anytime soon.

The spying programs authorized under FISA had already been approved in March as part of the annual approval process by the Washington DC-based Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISC, which oversees government surveillance programs and hears requests for secret surveillance. US authorities can still use their surveillance tools under FISA until March 2027, allowing many government surveillance programs to continue to operate.

But phone companies that provide their customers’ call logs to the government may be reluctant to share this information without a clear law allowing them to do so, according to Reuters.

However, the US government has other surveillance measures it can fall back on, such as Executive Order 12333, which allows the government to use almost unlimited powers to conduct surveillance around the world.

Bipartisan lawmakers continue to warn of FISA abuse regardless. Earlier this year, Sen. Ron Wyden, the longtime Democratic leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned that FISA is still being used to covertly violate the rights of Americans.

Wyden, who is well-versed in classified matters but cannot discuss them publicly, said lawmakers may not be aware that many US administrations are relying on a secret interpretation of Section 702, which “directly affects the privacy rights of the American people.”