House Republican leaders are lining up behind an 18-month extension of FISA Section 702, placing the GOP behind President Donald Trump’s push to renew the surveillance authority before it expires next month, even as many conservatives remain wary of the intelligence community’s history of abuse.
The effort was laid out on Thursday by House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rick Crawford (R-AR), who said during a hearing that he is working with House leadership, including ranking member Jim Himes (D-CT), and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) to support the extension.
“One of those authorities is FISA 702, which expires in just over a month,” Crawford said. “The president is seeking an 18-month clean extension to provide more time to assess the implementation of the 56 reform measures included in the last reauthorization.”
His remark was made during a hearing with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel, and other top intelligence officials.
Even as he backed renewal, Crawford acknowledged the political baggage surrounding the program.
“Many in Congress and across our nation have lost trust in the intelligence community,” he said. “While we have made progress, there’s still much work that remains to be done.”
Section 702 allows the government to target foreigners overseas without a warrant, though it can also incidentally sweep in innocent U.S. citizens’ communications, making it a recurring flashpoint between national security hawks and civil liberties conservatives.
That distrust has long animated Jordan’s position. Before the latest round of reforms, Jordan was openly arguing against renewing the authority.
“I think we should not even reauthorize FISA,” Jordan said in an October 2022 Fox News interview. “At the very least, Congress needs to change the FISA process.”
Jordan later voted against reauthorization in 2024 after the House rejected his push for a warrant requirement before officials could review Americans’ communications swept up under the program. His support now marks a notable reversal.
“It’s a whole different context today — 2026, not 2024,” Jordan told the Hill this week. “We got something like 56 reforms in the legislation last year, and they’ve made a huge difference.”
Those reforms were aimed at the very abuses that had fueled conservative opposition. They included tighter limits on U.S. person queries, mandatory training, written justifications for FBI searches involving citizens, supervisory and legal signoff for sensitive searches, stricter audit requirements, more reporting to Congress, and tougher civil, criminal, and employment penalties for misuse.
Ratcliffe strongly endorsed the extension and suggested even 18 months may be too short.
“The president is in favor of an 18-month clean reauthorization of FISA 702,” Ratcliffe said, adding that former CIA, FBI, NSA, and DIA leaders in both parties have backed the authority. He called the tool “indispensable” and said it provides “more than half of the important, actionable intelligence that the president and the commander in chief relies upon.”
Gabbard also backed Trump’s position. Asked whether she supported the 18-month extension without a warrant requirement, she replied, “I will support the president’s decision to execute this.”
Patel, another past FISA critic, told lawmakers the FBI has gone beyond what the 2024 reforms require.
He said the bureau now requires supervisory and legal approval before U.S. person queries proceed, forces agents to opt in rather than automatically search the 702 database, and has slashed the number of FBI personnel with access from roughly 6,600.
“If you recklessly use it, you’ve immediately terminated your access forever,” Patel said.
Democrats, meanwhile, have adopted a more skeptical stance akin to Republicans’ position two years ago.
In a statement last week, Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dick Durbin (D-IL) urged caution for “ramming through an extension of Section 702 at the last minute without regular order.”
MIKE JOHNSON PLEDGES CLEAN EXTENSION OF GOVERNMENT SPY POWERS AMID IRAN TERRORISM THREATS
Durbin has asked committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to hold a hearing on FISA with Trump administration witnesses present for questioning about how the sweeping surveillance power will be used.
The Washington Examiner contacted a representative for Jordan but did not receive a response.
