Fears of domestic Iranian terrorist cells may not be enough to get a clean extension for the federal government’s foreign spy powers that expire next month, as President Donald Trump and House conservatives complicate the path forward for congressional leaders.
A push to attach the GOP’s voter ID and citizenship bill — the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act — to a measure reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is threatening to upend the tenuous process that requires bipartisanship and is receiving a chilly reception in the Republican Senate.
Even Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who now supports weakening the filibuster to pass the SAVE Act amid a messy GOP primary runoff against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, feels the two should remain separate.
“They each ought to stand on their own merits,” Cornyn told the Washington Examiner.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called a clean spy powers extension “the only way forward,” warning that attaching Trump’s marquee voting bill would tank reauthorization for Democrats.
“This incredibly valuable tool would disappear when our country’s in the middle of a war,” Warner told the Washington Examiner. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
FISA, which allows warrantless wiretapping of non-citizens overseas and was last reupped in 2024, lapses April 20 and is coming under a spotlight amid the Iran war and warnings of domestic terrorist cells ready to inflict revenge attacks. The House is expected to take action on FISA in the coming weeks.
But with the Republican Party in disarray over the Senate’s 60-vote threshold blocking the House-passed SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot, Trump and House conservatives want the GOP Congress to use FISA as leverage.
“For those people that like FISA, I said, ‘Maybe you put them together,’ because a lot of people feel very strongly about FISA,” Trump told House Republicans during their recent South Florida retreat. “Some people don’t, but the people that want it, they really want it, and generally, for whatever reason, they’re opposed to what we’re saying about the ballots and about citizenship and all of those things. So, put them together, and you might get a vote.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) didn’t vote for the previous FISA reauthorization in 2024, but she’s insistent on attaching the SAVE Act. Her vocal provocation could snowball into a bigger problem for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), who have signaled they prefer a clean extension of spy powers. But Thune is facing fierce backlash for resisting pressure from the Make America Great Again coalition to skirt the traditional filibuster with a “talking filibuster” to pass the SAVE Act.
“SAVE AMERICA ACT MUST BE ATTACHED TO IT. UNTIL THIS IS DONE, I AM A NO ON THE BILL AND THE RULE, AND I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE!” Luna tweeted on Friday. “We gave Thune plenty of time to do the right thing.”
Thune is planning a marathon debate on the voting bill next week that won’t result in its passage, but is a process the GOP leader hopes will ease tensions in the party. He’s repeatedly ruled out skirting the 60-vote filibuster threshold over a lack of Republican support.
Conservative hardliners have blasted the plan. Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) called it “laughable” and “gaslighting the American people,” and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) labeled it “performance theater.”
Lawmakers will have just a few working days in mid-April after returning from a two-week Easter recess before the spy powers authorization will expire on April 20.
THUNE PLANS MOCK ‘TALKING FILIBUSTER’ TO CALM SAVE AMERICA ACT UPROAR
GOP senators, all of whom support the SAVE Act but are divided over whether to embrace a talking filibuster, still predict a stand-alone FISA extension will prevail.
“I think the House will keep the two of them separate,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told the Washington Examiner. “They understand that this is going to take a bipartisan effort to get FISA across the finish line.”
