The measure has long been criticised for allowing US intelligence agencies to collect citizen data without a warrant.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 17 Apr 2026<\/span>17 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The United States Congress has temporarily extended a controversial surveillance law which allows federal intelligence agencies to collect the data of foreigners, including their contacts with US citizens.<\/p>\n The move allows a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to continue until April 30. The short-term extension was passed by the House of Representatives and approved by the Senate on Friday.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The patch comes after President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to secure a more lasting extension broke down.<\/p>\n Section 702 of FISA allows the National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence services to collect data from foreigners outside of the country.<\/p>\n That could include their interactions with US citizens, a prospect that has alarmed rights advocates.<\/p>\n Collecting such data, which can include correspondence on email and telecommunications platforms, typically requires a warrant approved by a court.<\/p>\n The process has been described by critics as a \u201cbackdoor search\u201d that circumvents existing privacy laws.<\/p>\n Speaking after Friday\u2019s vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said there was still some openness to reforming the law.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to pivot and figure out what can pass, and we\u2019re in the process \u2060of figuring out how to do that here,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n Supporters of reform, who stretch across party lines, have long sought to repeal or amend Section 702.<\/p>\n While FISA was initially passed in 1978, Section 702 was added as an amendment in 2008.<\/p>\n The addition came amid the US\u2019s \u201cglobal war on terror\u201d. But during its approval, revelations emerged that the administration of former US President George W Bush had already used the tactics Section 702 legalised.<\/p>\n Supporters, including Trump, maintain that reforming the provision would lead to a lapse in national security.<\/p>\n \u201cI have spoken with many in our Military who say FISA is necessary in order to protect our Troops overseas, as well as our people here at home, from the threat of Foreign Terror Attacks,\u201d Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.<\/p>\n He has pushed for the law to be extended for 18 months without changes. That effort initially appeared on track in the House but was ultimately scuttled by pushback from within Trump\u2019s own Republican Party.<\/p>\n Among the detractors was Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, who has been a regular critic of Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cI will be voting NO on final passage of the FISA 702 Reauthorization Bill if it does not include a warrant provision and other reforms to protect US citizens\u2019 right to privacy,\u201d he wrote ahead of the House vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The measure has long been criticised for allowing US intelligence agencies to collect citizen data without a warrant. Published On 17 Apr 202617 Apr 2026 The United States Congress has temporarily extended a controversial surveillance law which allows federal intelligence agencies to collect the data of foreigners, including their contacts with US citizens. The move […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/2017-06-08T131939Z_1189275883_RC11B0FE7F20_RTRMADP_3_GULF-QATAR-JAZEERA-1714943623.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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