The Senate extends the controversial surveillance program used by US spy agencies

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has approved a short-term renewal through April 30 of a controversial surveillance program used by U.S. spy agencies, following a chaotic after-midnight scramble in the House of Representatives to prevent the power from expiring.

The Senate approved the measure by voice vote, without a formal appeal, as Congress races to meet a Monday deadline. It now heads to President Donald Trump, who pushed for a clean 18-month extension, for his signature.

House GOP leaders rushed lawmakers back into session late Thursday with a series of successive votes that collapsed in a dramatic fiasco, before quickly pushing through the stopgap measure as they race to keep the monitoring program running past its expiration date on Monday.

First, they unveiled a new plan that would extend the program for five years, with revisions. They then tried to salvage a shorter, 18-month renewal, which Trump had demanded and which House Speaker Mike Johnson had previously supported. About 20 Republicans joined most Democrats in blocking his progress.

Shortly after 2 a.m., they quickly approved a 10-day extension, which was agreed upon by a voice vote without a formal roll call. It then moves to the Senate, which holds a rare session on Friday, as Congress races to keep the surveillance program going.

“We were very close tonight,” Johnson said after the late-night event.

House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks on Capitol Hill on March 3, 2026. Archive photo by Kylie Cooper/Reuters

But Democrats criticized the midnight vote as amateur hour. “Are you kidding me? Who the hell runs this place?” Rep. Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, said during a fiery debate.

At the heart of the weeklong standoff is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the CIA, NSA, FBI and other agencies to collect and analyze massive amounts of foreign communications without a warrant. In doing so, they could incidentally scan communications involving Americans interacting with foreign targets.

US officials say this authority is necessary to thwart terrorist plots, cyber intrusions and foreign espionage.

The surveillance software battle is a debate over privacy and security

The path to passage of the law has swung around all week in a familiar battle, as lawmakers balance concerns about civil liberties with warnings from intelligence officials about national security risks.

Opponents of the monitoring tool point to past abuse. FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when searching intelligence related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and racial justice protests in 2020, according to the 2024 court order.

Trump and his allies have lobbied hard all week for a clean revamp of the program, with no changes.

A group of Republicans traveled to the White House on Tuesday, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Wednesday spoke directly with GOP lawmakers. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Thursday that there were “late night negotiations with the White House and some of our members.”

“I am asking Republicans to unite and vote together on a test vote to bring a clean bill to the public,” Trump wrote on Truth Social this week. “We need to stick together.”

The result of days of negotiations

Thursday’s proceedings were halted as lawmakers retreated behind closed doors and Johnson reached a deal to resolve the impasse.

Shortly before midnight, GOP leaders announced a new proposal, a five-year extension, with revisions. These changes are intended to win the support of skeptics of the surveillance program who have called for more oversight to protect Americans’ privacy.

Read more: Trump is pushing to expand the FISA program as some lawmakers push for privacy protections for Americans

Among the changes are new provisions to ensure that only FBI lawyers can authorize inquiries about US persons, and to require the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to review such cases, Rep. Austin Scott, Republican of Georgia, said during the debate.

But the final product, a 14-page amendment, didn’t go far enough for some naysayers in either party.

With Johnson controlling a slim majority, he has little room for opposition. As Republicans failed in both attempts before the short extension, a group of Democrats stepped in to try to help them move forward with longer extensions, but most Democrats opposed it.

“We just defeated Johnson’s efforts to sneak through the 5-year FISA mandate tonight,” said Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California. “Now, they’ll have to fight in broad daylight.”