By Caitlin Yilek
Updated April 18, 2026 / 1:50 PM EDT
President Trump on Saturday signed a short-term extension of a key surveillance authority after Congress approved a temporary measure that delays a decision until the end of April amid Republican infighting.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was set to expire Monday, was extended by 10 days to April 30. Lawmakers said the brief extension is intended to buy time for negotiations over a longer-term solution.
The administration had urged Republican lawmakers to accept an 18-month reauthorization without changes, but that proposal ran into opposition from members of both parties over concerns including warrantless collection of Americans’ communications. On Wednesday, Trump encouraged holdouts to fall in line in a Truth Social post: “I am willing to risk the giving up of my Rights and Privileges as a Citizen for our Great Military and Country!”
First enacted in 2008, Section 702 allows the government to collect communications of noncitizens located abroad without a warrant; Americans’ communications can be incidentally collected when they communicate with targeted foreign persons. National security officials say the authority is vital for counterterrorism, counterespionage, disrupting international drug trafficking and addressing cyber threats.
House GOP leaders postponed floor votes amid warnings from conservatives that they would not support an 18-month renewal that lacked additional privacy protections. That resistance produced multiple vote reschedules into the early hours of Friday.
After midnight, Speaker Mike Johnson moved a plan to extend the law for five years with modest changes to warrant rules and stiffer criminal penalties for misuse, but a dozen Republicans blocked that effort. A separate push to advance an unchanged 18-month renewal was later defeated by 20 Republicans, marking a setback for Johnson’s leadership.
In the end, the House approved the two-week extension by unanimous consent after 2 a.m. and sent it to the Senate, where many members had already left town as talks stalled. No senator objected to a unanimous-consent request Friday morning, clearing the way for the short-term extension to become law.
Jaala Brown and Alan He contributed to this report.