House passes 3-year FISA 702 extension

The bill now moves to the Senate, where it could face obstacles in clearing reauthorization because of a measure that bars the Federal Reserve from issuing digital currency.

The House passed a bill extending authorization for a contentious foreign spying power for three years, after weeks of GOP disputes initially forced Congress to issue a much shorter extension earlier this month to keep the law afloat.

The statute, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, lets spy agencies warrantlessly collect communications of foreign targets abroad, but it can sweep in Americans’ texts, emails and phone calls when they communicate with targets, raising Fourth Amendment concerns from privacy advocates. 

Lawmakers voted 235-191 to extend the authority without a key measure that would require agencies like the FBI and NSA to obtain a warrant before querying U.S. person data collected under 702.

But with the reauthorization bill also came an ...