'This Fight Is Nowhere Near Over,' Privacy Advocates Warn After GOP Again Punts FISA Vote
"We won't stop fighting for a self-evident truth: The government should not be able to bypass the courts to surveil Americans," said one privacy campaigner.
A controversial federal spying power is set to expire next week, but Republican leadership in the US House of Representatives again delayed a reauthorization vote on Wednesday amid persistent demands for reforms from across the political spectrum.
President Donald Trump is pushing for a "clean" 18-month extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on the electronic communications of noncitizens located outside the United States.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) "canceled a vote scheduled for Wednesday evening... amid a hard-liner rebellion, making it more likely the program could expire in five days—but said the House would try again Thursday," Politico reported.
As for whether there would be the necessary votes on Thursday to adopt a rule to proceed to consideration of the bill, Johnson said: "I think we will... We're working through some final details."
Although GOP leaders are plowing ahead with their reauthorization effort, Demand Progress senior policy adviser Hajar Hammado still welcomed the delay, declaring that "this time, fearmongering was not enough to overcome a bipartisan movement fighting for the privacy rights of all Americans."
"We rarely ever see the full force of the White House and the intelligence agencies fail to browbeat Congress into giving them what they want," Hammado noted. "That this happened today is a testament to the tireless work of our movement, which has been successfully bringing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together for a common cause."
"Of course, this fight is nowhere near over," she added. "Speaker Johnson can still force a vote any time with extremely short notice, but our coalition feels the wind at our backs, and we won't stop fighting for a self-evident truth: The government should not be able to bypass the courts to surveil Americans."
Hammado's group has been a leader in the growing coalition calling for reforms—including for lawmakers to close the "data broker loophole" that intelligence and law enforcement agencies use to buy their way around the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, which is supposed to protect Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures.
It's not just congressional Republicans under pressure. Demand Progress Action and Fight for the Future took aim at House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Jim Himes (D-Conn.)—who has signaled that he will support renewal and vote against adding privacy protections—with a Sunday print advertisement in the Connecticut Post.
We teamed up with @demandprogress.bsky.social to call out @jahimes.bsky.social for supporting Trump's mass surveillance efforts by trying to push through Section 702 without reform.
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— Fight for the Future (@fightforthefuture.org) April 14, 2026 at 8:38 PM
On Tuesday, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Grace Meng (D-NY), Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) spearheaded a letter to Democratic and Republican leaders in both chambers arguing that "this authority ought to include meaningful Fourth Amendment protections for Americans in its renewal package."
"The Trump administration has demonstrated an unparalleled appetite for collecting and exploiting Americans' personal data," the caucus leaders and members wrote. "The administration has built profiles on American citizens, demanded that artificial intelligence (AI) companies assist in mass domestic surveillance, and paid hundreds of millions of dollars to build a megadatabase of Americans' personal data. Without independent guardrails on Section 702, this administration has
repeatedly shown that it cannot be trusted to police its own use of this sweeping surveillance authority."
Over 30 civil society organizations—including Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, Indivisible, Project On Government Oversight, RootsAction, and more—endorsed the congressional letter. POGO policy counsel Donald Bell commended the leadership of the caucuses "in seeking real guardrails and accountability that protect our constitutional rights," while Hammado urged "all members of Congress to follow the lead" of the three groups.
Meanwhile, The American Prospect reported Monday that "the Congressional Black Caucus will quietly support an effort to reauthorize surveillance powers that were used to spy on Black Lives Matter activists in 2020," which "comes after Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the powerful ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, successfully lobbied CBC leadership to stand down on reforming the vast intelligence authority."
After publication, Meeks told the outlet that "I support FISA reauthorization, but the only vote I've been whipping is my war powers resolution to end the war in Iran. Whip operations are traditionally conducted by the ranking member of the committee that has jurisdiction over the legislation being considered. Any claim that I'm whipping the CBC on FISA is false."
In response to that reporting,Re Access Now, Fight for the Future, and STOP Spying NYC said in a joint statement that "if the heat of the glares aimed at Rep. Meeks right now could melt him, he'd be dripping like a snowman on the pavement in July. No one in Queens wants everybody in the federal government to have total access to the intimate details of their lives with the tap of a mouse."
Highlighting the danger of continuing the spying power sans privacy protections as Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers roam US streets, the groups said that "it is a total betrayal of the Fourth Amendment and the dignity of everyday people in this country to treat us all as if we are guilty until Big Brother Trump proves us innocent by watching our every move. And worse—it's impossible to predict how these troves of records may be weaponized in the future against racial justice activists, trans and queer families, abortion patients and providers, anti-war activists, or anyone who acts out of step with MAGA."
"It's supposed to be the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, not the Forever Indiscriminate Surveillance Act. Rep. Meeks' colleagues are proposing real safeguards to protect people against this indiscriminate government surveillance," the trio added. "He is not only failing his constituency, he is disrespecting them and putting them in danger. It's not too late for Rep. Meeks to get on the right side of history."
