House passes FISA renewal in bipartisan vote, putting pressure on Senate before looming deadline

The vote split Republicans with more than 20 GOP privacy hawks voting against a three-year extension of the warrantless surveillance program.

The successful vote leaves the Senate little time to act before the fast-approaching April 30 deadline.

A swath of House conservatives voted against the FISA renewal bill, citing concerns that the measure does not include more stringent privacy safeguards, such as a requirement for intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant before accessing Americans' data. 

"We should all be standing up for the Fourth Amendment," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a leading GOP privacy hawk, said during debate on the FISA renewal bill Tuesday.

House leadership attempted to win over some conservative holdouts by adding language permanently banning the Federal Reserve from issuing central bank digital currencies (CBDC) to the FISA renewal bill.

"They know that," Thune told reporters Tuesday, referring to House Republicans. 

Johnson has voiced optimism that the upper chamber will take up the House bill without modifications. 

"I speak with Leader Thune all the time. They're watching this very closely, and hopefully they can process what we send them," Johnson told Fox News Wednesday. "No one on the Republican side anyway, wants to play around with letting these critical national security tools go unfunded or expire," he added. "So I think they'll move it expeditiously."

"This department strongly supports the reauthorization of FISA 702," Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers Wednesday. "It is not hyperbole to say many of the most important missions we have executed could not have happened without the intelligence gathered through FISA 702."

"I'm suspicious. The way it's proposed right now, particularly under this administration," Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., told Fox News, referring to the FISA renewal bill. "I was more comfortable when I voted for it in 2024. Under this administration, I'm not as comfortable."

Just 42 Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, crossed party lines in support of the measure.

"I've seen countless, countless instances where the intelligence obtained through section 702 quite literally saved lives," the Connecticut Democrat said. "So, given the binary choice between reauthorization and expiration, the responsible choice is reauthorization."