Privacy Hawks in the House Are Poised to Complicate a Spy Powers Reauthorization

President Donald Trump on Wednesday made clear he supports a clean extension of a key surveillance-authority law set to expire in April, giving Republican leadership in the House of Representatives much needed support.

But a contingent of privacy hawks who want more guardrails in the law may make that difficult for Republican leaders.

“Leadership is receptive to getting the deal done,” Rep. Clay Higgins told NOTUS Wednesday. “So now everyone’s paying attention with the details of what the legislation should ultimately look like, and if it needs correction, which it does — not a lot, but if it does need correction, then isn’t this the appropriate time to make the correction?”

The law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allows federal agencies to collect data on targeted foreign individuals while they’re outside the U.S. But Democrats plan to oppose an extension, concerned that the Trump administration may use it more broadly to surveil U.S. citizens. And some conservatives — particularly members of the House Freedom Caucus — also oppose it because they want more privacy guardrails put in place.

While White House officials had made clear in the past that the administration supported a clean 18-month extension, Trump personally weighed in for the first time on Wednesday.

“When used properly, FISA is an effective tool to keep Americans safe. For these reasons, I have called for a clean 18-month extension, HOWEVER, the Critical and Common Sense Reforms that were made in the last Reauthorization of FISA must remain intact to protect the American People from abuses,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“With the ongoing successful Military activities against the Terrorist Iranian Regime, it is more important than ever that we remain vigilant, PROTECT our Homeland, Troops, and Diplomats stationed abroad, and maintain our ability to quickly stop bad actors seeking to cause harm to our People and our Country,” Trump continued. “The fact is, whether you like FISA or not, it is extremely important to our Military.”

House Republicans have spent several days meeting on the issue, instead of voting on it as they had originally planned. Conservative privacy hawks insist they want changes to protect Americans’ data before they approve any extension, complicating the chances of a vote on the House floor before the law expires on April 20.

“I think they know that there would be problems bringing a clean reauthorization to the floor under a rule,” Rep. Andy Harris, the chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told NOTUS Wednesday when asked if leadership was receptive to the Freedom Caucus’ concerns about FISA. “They realize that’s probably not possible.”

Harris said that while he’s eager to see FISA extended, he’s still gunning for reforms.

“We want to work with the White House and leadership to extend FISA authorization, but I think there are going to have to be a couple of things that are going to have to enter into that discussion,” Harris said.

Speaker Mike Johnson has long supported a clean, 18-month extension of the law of Section 702. He and others in the conference who support a clean extension say the reforms added to the last reauthorization in 2024 are working well enough to not need more at this point.

“The president of the United States has called for a short-term, clean extension, 18 months. We will continue to look for that,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday. “We want to continue to refine and amend the law if necessary to protect constitutional freedoms ... We got to protect the Fourth Amendment and all those processes. But FISA as currently constituted, as we amended last time with 56 major reforms, is working as desired.”

Johnson is planning to bring an 18-month clean extension up for a procedural vote when the House returns from Easter recess the week of April 13.

There are still plenty of Republicans who will back Johnson’s plan. Rep. Darrell Issa, who’s on the committee that oversees FISA, told NOTUS he’ll support the clean extension specifically because it would call up the law again in 18 months, in line with the next government funding cycle.

“Every time there’s a reauthorization, there tends to be a serious look, and in most cases, some pulling back,” Issa said. “But we’ve just had some terrorist attacks. So is this the time to have a discussion about pulling back?”