Congress has reauthorized Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for exactly 45 days. The House passed the short-term extension Wednesday, buying legislators more time to negotiate reforms to the wiretapping authority that allows warrantless collection of foreign communications that routinely sweeps up American data.
The House renewal included no warrant requirement, the central reform privacy advocates have demanded for years. It did include an unrelated provision banning the Federal Reserve from issuing Central Bank Digital Currencies, a move Senate Majority Leader John Thune called a nonstarter, signaling the Senate will fight the bill's current form.
The full piece is worth reading for how the last few weeks of negotiation collapsed and what specific factions are blocking reform. The 45-day clock is already running.
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