WASHINGTON — In less than 10 days, Congress will have to confront another deadline to renew a controversial warrantless surveillance law, but Alabama’s Republican federal lawmakers are not expected to stand in the way this year.
On Friday, the House and Senate agreed to a short-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, until April 30, after some hardline conservatives refused to agree to a longer-term reauthorization.
The spy program allows the U.S. government to surveil foreign persons living abroad without warrants for national security reasons. Inadvertently, Americans have been swept up in those searches, raising concerns about breaches of civil liberties. Critics argue the law violates citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights, while supporters say the program is necessary for intelligence gathering.
All of Alabama’s congressional Republicans supported two efforts to reauthorize the law in the House last Friday.
One would have extended the program for 18 months without changes. President Donald Trump had been pushing for the 18-month “clean” extension. They also voted for a five-year extension, which included some changes to the law. But those two options failed after some other Republicans rejected them.
That marked a decidedly different vote for U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, who voted against reauthorizing the program in 2023 and 2024. Moore said there were two reasons he would support an extension this year.
“Number one, the president’s asking for it,” Moore told Alabama Daily News. “We met with the military leaders. They say they desperately need it with things going on in Iran. Plus, with the borders open as it was, we got cells here.”
Moore said he supported the 18-month “clean” extension that Trump championed because it would allow the law to be up for reauthorization again during Trump’s term. He added that he is still supportive of adding reforms to the law, including warrants. But said, there have also been positive changes to the law. When Congress reauthorized it in 2024, the measure included some reforms.
“The reforms we’ve done are doing great things,” Moore told ADN. “We’re not seeing nearly the issues we saw in the prior administration. But there’s still some work we can do.”
After the House approved the 10-day extension, it passed the Senate on Friday via unanimous consent, which meant no roll call vote was held.
U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., told ADN he would support a FISA reauthorization this year, despite voting against it in 2024.
“We need to get it done, because it’s something I think that could really help in some of the things that we’re doing,” Tuberville said.
All but four moderate House Democrats voted against the FISA reauthorization last week. Alabama’s two Democratic members did not support either of the longer-term extensions.
Before the votes, U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, told ADN he wanted to be mindful that the United States has the necessary resources to “protect America against foreign attacks” but also balance that with protecting the “civil liberties and the protections of American citizens.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., now has until next Thursday to reach an agreement with enough Republicans to reauthorize the law beyond April 30. The deal would also need to be done in a way that would allow enough Democratic senators to vote for it, too, to meet the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.
Before wrapping up the Senate session last week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., teed up a three-year extension of Section 702, giving the Senate the option to take the lead on FISA if the House cannot reach a compromise in time.