President Trump on Tuesday said he’s working with House GOP leadership to pass a “clean extension” of FISA Section 702, which has faced intense scrutiny for enabling the intelligence community to collect information on Americans without a warrant through its surveillance of foreigners.
“I am working very hard with our Great Speaker, Mike Johnson, along with Chairman Jim Jordan and Chairman Rick Crawford, to get a clean extension of FISA 702 through the House of Representatives this week. I am asking Republicans to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean Bill to the floor. We need to stick together when this Bill comes before the House Rules Committee today to keep it CLEAN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“I was a victim of the worst and most illegal abuse of FISA in our Nation’s History, by Radical Left Lunatics, who lied to the FISA Court to spy on my 2016 Presidential Campaign in their attempt to RIG the Election in favor of Crooked Hillary Clinton. Their use of this instrument in the 2020 Presidential Election was even worse! When the Dirty Cop, James Comey, the failed Head of the FBI, went after me, he was using FISA Title I, the Domestic Collection, not FISA 702, the Foreign Collection, which needs to be extended today. While parts of FISA were illegally and unfortunately used against me in the Democrats’ disgraceful Witch Hunt and Attack in the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA Hoax, and perhaps would be used against me in the future, I am willing to risk that as a Citizen in order to do what is right for our Country,” Trump continued.
“Our Military desperately needs FISA 702, and it is one of the reasons we have had such tremendous SUCCESS on the battlefield, both in Venezuela and Iran. Since the first day of my already Historic Second Term, my Administration has worked tirelessly to ensure these FISA Reforms are being aggressively executed at every level of the Executive Branch to keep Americans safe, while protecting our sacred Civil Liberties guaranteed by our Great Constitution. 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,” he said.
“The fact is, whether you like FISA or not, it is extremely important to our Military. I have spoken to many Generals about this, and they consider it VITAL. Not one said, even tacitly, that they can do without it — especially right now with our brilliant Military Operation in Iran,” he added.
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POLITICO shared further:
The White House is turning to a trusted ally as it presses Congress to reauthorize a controversial surveillance program before it expires next week.
Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine told lawmakers in a letter Monday that Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is critical to U.S. warfighters and has sufficient guardrails in place to protect Americans, despite widespread privacy concerns, according to a copy of the letter shared with POLITICO.
He urged lawmakers to back President Donald Trump’s push for an 18-month clean renewal of the law, which allows the U.S. government to collect the text and emails of foreigners abroad — but can also inadvertently sweep up data on Americans.
“The loss or reduction of FISA section 702 authorities would increase risk to the Joint Force, degrade our worldwide combat lethality, and significantly impair U.S. security,” Caine argues in the letter.
Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to shove the extension through the Rules Committee on Tuesday afternoon to tee up a floor vote for later this week. But more than a dozen House GOP holdouts have expressed opposition, citing concerns that the law undermines Americans’ privacy.
Caine sent the letter to the committees on Intelligence, Armed Services, Defense Appropriations and Judiciary in both chambers, according to a White House official, granted anonymity as a condition of sharing the letter. The law is set to expire on April 20.
The intervention of Caine — one of Trump’s most trusted advisers — is a sign the White House is nervous it doesn’t have enough votes to preserve the spy statute.
“Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is backing a clean, 18-month extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) following the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) commitment to revise its congressional attendance procedures for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISCR) proceedings. In Grassley’s view, DOJ’s move to amend its procedures fully resolves the concerns Grassley and Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) raised in November,” a release from Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office read.
“I applaud DOJ for lifting its restrictions on congressional oversight of FISC and FISCR proceedings. With Congress’s access fully restored, the Trump administration has faithfully implemented the reforms Congress called for in its last FISA reauthorization and proven its commitment to transparency and the protection of civil liberties,” Grassley said.
“Section 702 is one of our nation’s most valuable national security tools. Especially given the current threat environment, it’s imperative Congress doesn’t allow this critical authority to lapse. We must ensure American lives aren’t put at risk by a potential Section 702 expiration on April 20. The best path forward is for the House to pass a clean, 18-month FISA extension,” he continued.
“Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights are not for sale. I urge Congress to pass FISA Section 702 reforms to close the loophole that allows the federal government to purchase citizens’ private data,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) said.
Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights are not for sale.
I urge Congress to pass FISA Section 702 reforms to close the loophole that allows the federal government to purchase citizens’ private data.
Read my op-ed in the Hill
https://t.co/OJnwNOxNtJ
— Rep. Warren Davidson (@Rep_Davidson) April 9, 2026
“I vote with GOP 91% of the time, but that’s about to go to 90%. I won’t vote to let feds spy on you without a warrant. FISA 702 allows the government to search for your information in vast databases compiled while targeting foreigners,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) commented.
I vote with GOP 91% of the time, but that’s about to go to 90%.
I won’t vote to let feds spy on you without a warrant.
FISA 702 allows the government to search for your information in vast databases compiled while targeting foreigners.
The White House sent me this email today: pic.twitter.com/BW59MlRNvY
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 10, 2026
NPR has more:
Section 702 of FISA empowers U.S. intelligence agencies to collect and review the electronic communications of foreign nationals located outside the United States without obtaining individual court orders.
Sometimes, foreign nationals communicate with people in the United States, leading to incidental collection of Americans’ communications.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence says the government uses the information collected through the program to protect the U.S. and its allies from foreign adversaries — including terrorists and spies — as well as to inform cybersecurity efforts.
“No one denies the immense intelligence value of Section 702,” Stewart Baker, former National Security Agency general counsel, told Congress in January.
“The U.S. government recently credited the program with helping to disrupt several terrorist attacks here and abroad, identify the Chinese origins of imported fentanyl precursors, respond to ransomware attacks on U.S. companies, identify Chinese hackers’ intrusions into a network used by a key U.S. transportation hub, and disrupt foreign government efforts to carry out kidnappings, assassinations, and espionage on U.S. soil. Those examples just scratch the surface,” Baker said.
The program’s 2024 authorization is set to expire on April 20 — unless Congress votes to renew it. Congress has always attached an expiration date to Section 702, which makes its renewal a recurring fight on Capitol Hill.
Civil liberties-minded legislators of both parties have long been concerned that Section 702 enables illegal, warrantless surveillance of American citizens by the federal government. And unlike most issues in contemporary politics, the issue doesn’t break cleanly along party lines.
Prominent critics include Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio.