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Democrats Back Warrantless Surveillance Despite Fear Of Abuse By Trump Administration

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WASHINGTON – Dozens of House Democrats joined most Republicans on Wednesday to approve an extension of the government’s authority to conduct warrantless surveillance.

The extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would preserve the government’s ability to look through telecommunications by U.S. citizens collected in the course of foreign surveillance.

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The bill passed comfortably, 235–191, with 42 Democrats in support and 22 Republicans against.

The Democratic support came despite warnings from progressives and Democratic leaders alike that the Trump administration can’t be trusted not to abuse its power and trample constitutional rights.

“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.) said before the vote.

Reps. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a former member of Democratic leadership, urged their colleagues to vote in favor of the bill.

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A group of far-right Republicans blocked a previous effort to extend the spy powers this month but backed down Wednesday amid cajoling by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

“Two-thirds of the President’s daily national security briefing comes from intelligence collected by that statute. We cannot allow it to go dark,” Johnson told reporters. Other Republicans said the spying powers are essential for preventing a terrorist attack like the ones that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001.

To sweeten the deal for Republicans, Johnson attached to the bill a ban on the Federal Reserve creating its own digital currency — something conservatives fear the government would use for invasive economic surveillance, even though the central bank has not said it wants to create its own digital currency.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) was one of 20 Republicans who voted against a spy extension earlier this month. He voted yes on Wednesday, he said, because of the central bank provision.

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“Now the $64 question is on the Senate, whether they’re going to strip it out,” Norman told HuffPost.

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), who also voted no on the earlier procedural resolution, switched to yes, calling the digital currency provision “a really big win” even though he wasn’t sure if the Senate would adopt it.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has said a FISA bill with a digital currency provision is “not happening” in the Senate. It’s possible Congress could wind up approving a short-term extension of the controversial spy powers while Republicans work things out among themselves.

Section 702, first enacted in 2008, allows the government to obtain foreign communications transmitted through U.S. telecom infrastructure. The foreign surveillance incidentally sweeps up American communications, which federal law enforcement can then search. Conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats wanted to require the government to get a judicial warrant before conducting such searches.

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“We clearly know that these warrantless surveillance opportunities … are a violation of people’s constitutional rights, yet you’re having Democrats still willing to vote for it, and I think that’s shameful,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) told HuffPost.

A warrant requirement failed by a single vote in the House in 2024, the last time the program was reauthorized, but Speaker Johnson blocked the House from considering a warrant requirement this year. Instead, the bill comes with modest reforms, such as stiffer penalties for federal officers who misuse the surveillance tool.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) noted that after modest reforms were added in 2024, such as training and more layers of approval, auditors found only 127 instances in which searches for data on “U.S. persons” failed to comply with the rules, compared to nearly 300,000 violations in 2021.

“That’s real improvement,” Jordan said. “In light of the progress that has been made and the threats that we face, we think that the bill before us today makes sense right now.”