House GOP pushes spy powers vote to April amid opposition

House Republican leaders will not bring a “clean” reauthorization of foreign surveillance powers up for a vote next week as they had hoped, a source familiar with the schedule confirmed to The Hill, as opposition to the program in both parties prevents swift passage.

House GOP leaders had eyed a vote next week on an 18-month extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which authorizes surveillance of foreign nationals outside the U.S. They hoped to extend it without the reforms long sought by privacy hawks concerned about communications of Americans that can be swept up in the surveillance.

The FISA authorities expire April 20. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had wanted to vote on FISA before a scheduled two-week recess in early April to give the Senate plenty of time to process the legislation.

The delay means that, barring a change in the schedule, Congress will have to rush to reauthorize the spy powers the week before they expire. Politico  first reported  the change.

While FISA reauthorization is historically bipartisan, House GOP leaders are in a tough spot.

A clean FISA extension has opposition from enough members in the super-slim GOP majority to jeopardize a key procedural rule vote if leaders brought it to the floor through the normal process. It takes just two GOP members to take an otherwise party-line rule vote, assuming all members are present and voting.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has pledged to oppose a rule vote on a clean FISA reauthorization, calling for reforms like a warrant requirement for American citizens. And Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) has also pushed for attaching the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, referred to as the SAVE America Act — a President Trump-supported bill to require ID to cast a ballot and proof of citizenship for voter registration — to FISA as a way to leverage support for the voting legislation.

“I think if this was going to go the route of the rule, we’d have to talk about a couple of minor reforms,” House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) told reporters Wednesday, adding that he was not sure if he would vote for a rule for a clean extension.

Leaders could get around the challenge of a rule vote if they brought up FISA under the fast-track suspension of the rules process, which would require two-thirds support to pass the bill — meaning substantial support from upward of 70 House Democrats.

But it’s not clear GOP leaders would get such support from the opposite party. Democrats have also historically been divided on the legislation, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) declined this week to say which side he’d take on a FISA reauthorization final vote. He said Democrats would not help Republicans pass a rule for the legislation.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), which consists of 98 House Democrats, formally voted this week to oppose reauthorization of the warrantless surveillance powers, in a sign of the difficulty of getting enough Democratic support needed to fast-track a FISA vote.

Trump administration officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, briefed House members about FISA earlier this week as GOP leaders sought to gain support for a FISA vote.

Johnson has argued that reforms that were included as part of the  last FISA reauthorization bill in 2024 , such as requiring agents to get approval before searching the 702 database for information that might concern Americans, are sufficient for now.

“Last time it was up for reauthorization, we instituted 56 substantive reforms to FISA,” Johnson said Tuesday. “By every measure and review, those are working just as we planned. We’ve not had the abuses that were happening before those reforms.”

In a sign that FISA reauthorization could face less overall resistance from Republicans than in the past, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the chair of the House Judiciary Committee who previously sought major FISA reforms and voted against reauthorization in 2024,  told The Hill in an interview Wednesday  that he will vote in favor of a clean FISA reauthorization.

“It’s a whole different context today — 2026, not 2024. And you know, we got something like 56 reforms in the legislation last year, and they’ve made a huge difference,” Jordan said. “I think it’s a completely different framework.”

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