House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has secured support from several Republicans to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Johnson spent more than two hours persuading at least seven Republicans to change their votes, The Washington Post reported.
Some Republicans have expressed concern that reauthorizing FISA would threaten American civil liberties. The reauthorization is expected to easily pass the Senate.
Section 702 allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect communications from foreign targets overseas, though critics have long raised concerns about incidental collection involving Americans.
Americans in touch with those targets can be swept in, and privacy advocates in both parties have long pushed for a warrant requirement before agencies search that data for U.S.-person information.
Opponents of the surveillance tool point to past misuses. FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when searching intelligence related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and racial justice protests in 2020, according to a 2024 court order.
It is set to expire Thursday, April 30.
"FISA needs to be gutted. Just start over, it's not going to work," Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told the Post. "Nobody trusts it, it was used to spy on American citizens."
The Trump administration had supported reauthorizing FISA, arguing it was essential to protecting U.S. citizens, particularly in hostage rescues and stopping terrorist attacks, according to the Post.
Last week, the Senate approved a short-term renewal of FISA until the end of the month after a chaotic, post-midnight scramble in the House to keep the authority from expiring.
Among the changes made to win over FISA skeptics are new provisions to ensure that only FBI attorneys can authorize queries on U.S. persons, and to require the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to review such cases.
House Republican leaders had initially sought a five-year extension of FISA.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.