The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) formally voted to oppose reauthorization of the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers, a move that could signal difficulty for a House GOP tasked with meeting President Trump’s demand for an 18-month extension of the program.
It is the first time the caucus has formally agreed to vote against renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows the government to spy on foreigners located abroad.
However, privacy-minded lawmakers argue the intelligence community should get a warrant before reviewing information on Americans who get swept up if they communicate with those surveilled.
The position is the caucus’s firmest stance to date against Section 702, binding the CPC’s 98 House members — almost a quarter of the chamber — to vote against a straight renewal of the program. That complicates matters for a GOP that has traditionally struggled to get many of its own members to back reauthorization of FISA.
“While Donald Trump and Stephen Miller are showing unprecedented disregard for the basic Constitutional rights of Americans, the last thing we should be doing is handing them massive surveillance powers they will abuse. Americans are asking us to stand up and fight back. Democrats should unite in opposing Section 702 renewal without dramatic reforms,” said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), the CPC’s chair, in a statement to The Hill.
When Section 702 was last renewed in 2024, the CPC voted to require its members to back an amendment to add a warrant requirement to the bill. But when that failed, it did not then formally adopt a position requiring its members to vote against its reauthorization.
The firmer stance this year comes amid broader concerns about Trump’s backing for its reauthorization and the ways the administration could abuse that power, with the caucus sticking to demands for reforms.
Several Democrats previously told The Hill that the dynamics under Trump had shifted their willingness to reauthorize the spy program.
“I might change my vote,” Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) previously told The Hill, describing himself as a swing vote in 2024.
“I trusted the Justice Department and the State Department folks,” the former prosecutor said of his Biden-era support for FISA 702. “I don’t trust them anymore.”
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and a Section 702 supporter, also previously told The Hill, “It’s going to be a harder lift on the Democratic side. I mean, Trump has shown utter disdain for the law and for the Constitution and for norms.”
Meanwhile, some House Republicans have already indicated they plan to throw up roadblocks to bringing renewal of Section 702 to the floor, renewing questions about the need to rope in Democratic support.
The CPC’s position got another boost from member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), also the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, who sent a letter to all of his colleagues Thursday urging them to vote against renewal.
“Times have changed,” Raskin, who voted in favor of reauthorizing Section 702 in 2024, wrote in a letter also obtained by The Hill.
“The safeguards put in place in 2024 have been badly eroded by the Trump Administration. The ‘clean’ extension favored by President Trump and Stephen Miller leaves the Trump Administration in charge of policing its own abuses of this authority—and what could go wrong with that? To trust that any recent reforms are working, we would have to take President Trump at his word.”
The CPC cited a number of factors in adopting the position, including hope that a failure to advance Section 702 would help them push for other civil liberties protections beyond the spy program.
That includes data purchasing, FBI Director Kash Patel acknowledged this week, saying the bureau is now buying commercial data on Americans that can be used to track their location over time.
“We do purchase commercially available information that’s consistent with the Constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and it has led to some valuable intelligence for us,” Patel said while appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee for its annual Worldwide Threats hearing.
The caucus cited concerns that data purchasing could be used to track those visiting abortion clinics, noting a 2024 letter from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) noting data from one company tricked visits to 600 Planned Parenthood clinics. There are also questions about the extent American’s data is being used to respond to those protesting immigration enforcement.
The caucus likewise noted the Defense Department’s beef with artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, indicating the U.S. military’s willingness to use AI. Anthropic was willing to let its product be used as part of FISA, but could not get the Pentagon to agree to prohibit the use of its product on data purchased on Americans, The New York Times reported.
