House approves short-term extension of surveillance law in blow to Republicans’ long-term plan – US politics live

House votes to extend Fisa surveillance law for 10 days

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.

The House of Representatives voted early on Friday to briefly extend an expiring and controversial law that grants the US government sweeping powers for warrantless surveillance.

The decision to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) until 30 April came via unanimous consent shortly after 208 Democrats and 20 Republicans came together to defeat attempts to pass five-year and 18-month renewals.

First enacted in 2008, Fisa’s Section 702 allows national security agencies to collect and review texts and emails sent to, and from, foreigners living outside the country, without a warrant. This would also cover any communications between Americans who are talking to non-American targets living board.

The law was originally set to expire on Monday, as the law includes a provision that notes the law will expire without periodically being reauthorized.

Donald Trump had been pushing for an 18-month extension, posting on Truth Social that the law was an “effective tool to keep Americans safe” and “extremely important to our military”, especially during the war in Iran – a dramatic shift from his call two years ago to “KILL FISA” after accusing the FBI of misusing the law to spy on his 2016 campaign.

While the CIA credits Section 702 with helping to rescue hostages overseas and prevent a terror attack at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, critics warn that it allows the US government to spy on Americans without a warrant. Prior to the vote, California congressman Ro Khanna posted on X that it “gives Donald Trump the power to surveil or collect data on Americans through a back door”.

“A yes vote gives Trump more power to surveil Americans,” Khanna said. “Every Democrat must vote no. Everyone who loves the constitution must vote no.”

In other developments:

Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon to be followed by a meeting between Israeli and Lebanese leaders next week.
Progressive Democrat Analilia Mejia won a New Jersey special election for the US House on Thursday. Mejia, who was endorsed by Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is far more critical on Israel and was the only candidate in the Democratic primary to call Israel’s actions during the war in Gaza a genocide.
Todd Lyons, the acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is stepping down after a turbulent year carrying out Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.
Donald Trump nominated Erica Schwartz, former deputy surgeon general during his first administration, to lead the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Schwartz was under immediate pressure from critics of the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to oppose his anti-vaccine ideology. At a heated oversight hearing, House Democrats grilled Kennedy over his vaccine rollbacks.
Speaking in Las Vegas, Trump told supporters “the war in Iran is going along swimmingly, we can do whatever we want”. He did not explain why, then, the US military has been unable to stop Iran from closing the strait of Hormuz.
The US Department of Justice opened an investigation into Eric Swalwell following his resignation from Congress, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Police in Illinois responded on Wednesday evening to the home of Pope Leo’s brother, John Prevost, after a bomb threat was made, NBC Chicago reported.

Key events

Short-term Fisa extension faces uphill battle in Senate

The short-term extension of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa), which passed in the House overnight, is now struggling to make headway in the Senate.

John Thune, the Senate majority leader, told reporters today that he doesn’t have the votes yet to pass the stopgap measure by unanimous consent. But he’s up against the clock, as Fisa provision expires on Monday, and many lawmakers have gone home for the weekend.

Trump claims Nato offered to help with strait of Hormuz

Vivian Ho

Donald Trump said on Friday that Nato has offered to help the US with the strait of Hormuz. Nato did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Now that the Hormuz Strait situation is over, I received a call from NATO asking if we would need some help. I TOLD THEM TO STAY AWAY, UNLESS THEY JUST WANT TO LOAD UP THEIR SHIPS WITH OIL. They were useless when needed, a Paper Tiger!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

This was the US president’s sixth post in two hours. During this time, Trump celebrated Iran’s announcement that the strait of Hormuz, declared the US naval blockade was still in place and proclaimed that the Israel was now prohibited by the US from bombing Lebanon.

The president has since gone on to post five more times in 18 minutes.

The supreme court issued one opinion today. However, it wasn’t in any of the closely watched cases I listed earlier.

It’s unclear when the court’s next decision day will be.

One box of decisions has been brought out at the supreme court today. This usually means we can expect between one and two opinions.

We’ll bring you the latest.

In more CDC news, Donald Trump has selected Erica Schwartz to lead the troubled health agency, bringing to an end a months-long search for a permanent director.

Schwartz served as the deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term. But before she can officially take over, the president’s pick will require confirmation by the Senate.

More here:

Trump reacts to announcement of strait of Hormuz reopening

Taz Ali

Following Iran’s announcement that the strait of Hormuz is open for commercial shipping, Donald Trump has issued his response in an all caps post on Truth Social.

He wrote:

IRAN HAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THE STRAIT OF IRAN IS FULLY OPEN AND READY FOR FULL PASSAGE. THANK YOU!

Inside the CDC’s leadership vacuum work at a ‘standstill’ and morale is low

Ed Pilkington

Fourteen months after Robert F Kennedy Jr was sworn in as US health secretary, the country’s prime public health agency over which he presides is in a state of disarray.

Eighty per cent of the top director positions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stand vacant, with no permanent leader to drive policies affecting the health of millions of Americans. No one is in place to coordinate the agency’s day-to-day work fighting infectious disease, combatting heart conditions or screening for cancer.

Current and former senior CDC officials have told the Guardian that productivity has slowed to a crawl in some areas as a result of bureaucratic delays and backlogs in paperwork. The agency is flying blind after breaks in data collection in critical areas such as infant and maternal mortality.

Supreme court poised to issue opinions

Today, we can expect opinions from the supreme court at 10am ET.

Here’s a rundown of three highly anticipated cases that we’re covering closely.

Louisiana v Callais: A high-stakes voting rights case in which the court’s conservative majority appears poised to gut one of the most powerful provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
Trump v Cook: Donald Trump’s case for firing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, as he continues to exert greater control over the US central bank.
Trump v Slaughter: A case which examines the legality of Trump’s firing of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) member, Rebecca Slaughter.

Donald Trump will begin the day in Las Vegas, where he’ll hold meetings before travelling to Phoenix, Arizona, to deliver remarks at a Turning Point USA event at 2pm ET.

Following that, the president will travel back to Washington.

US House approves bill to shield 350,000 Haitians from deportations

In more House news, the House voted yesterday to pass a bill to continue the temporary protection status for Haitian immigrants, a designation that allows them to live and work in the US without fear of deportation.

As The Guardian’s Chris Stein writes, the vote was a rare bipartisan rebuke of Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda enabled by a small group of Republican defectors, with the 11 members of the House Republican conference joining with the Democrats to pass the bill 224 to 204.

More here:

Democrats say Fisa law risks giving Trump administration more power to ‘spy on American people’

Here is what some Congressional Democrats are saying about section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa), which the House voted early Friday to extend for 10 days:

Hakeem Jeffries, House minority leader, called the attempt by Republicans to pass a five-year extension of the law “unacceptable”.

“The bill does not enhance privacy protection,” Jeffries said. “It risks expanding the ability of the Trump administration to spy on the American people.”

Ahead of the vote, congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said she was a “strong no”, explaining that the five-year extension pushed forth by Mike Johnson, the Republican House majority leader, did “absolutely nothing” to fix the loopholes of Section 702 that allow the government to collect any communications between Americans and non-Americans living abroad without a warrant.

“Don’t be fooled: This bill simply continues the spying and surveillance of the American people,” Jayapal said.

George Whitesides, a representative from southern California, criticized the Republican majority for forcing a vote on such an important issue after a midnight.

“We’re being asked to make our vote after midnight, with the final vote expected to be around 2 or 3 in the morning,” Whitesides said. “This used to be unacceptable behavior for the Republicans, but now it seems to be the main way they pass their difficult bills. It’s no way to run Congress or the nation.”

Acting ICE director Todd Lyons will step down at the end of May, says DHS

Sam Levin

Todd Lyons, the acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is stepping down after a turbulent year carrying out Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.

Lyons, who has been leading the agency since March 2025, will resign at the end of May and move to the private sector, Markwayne Mullin, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, said in a statement on Thursday.

Mullin’s statement did not include details about who will succeed Lyons, and DHS and the White House did not immediately respond to inquiries.

Lyons’ departure comes as ICE faces escalating backlash over its violent and aggressive tactics across the country, including the recent shooting of a California man during a traffic stop, which Lyons defended.

Here are some more details on the political lines forming around Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa):

The Guardian’s Sanya Mansoor writes that Republicans appear to be divided on the issue. Jim Jordan, a chairman of the House judiciary committee, voted against extending Section 702 two years ago, writing in a Washington Post op-ed last April that without a warrant requirement, “the government’s surveillance power will always be subject to abuse” – but as of last month, he, like Trump, called for a clean extension.

Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, had previously delayed the reauthorization following concerns raised by hardline Republicans about warrantless surveillance. In total, 20 Republicans voted against advancing the 18-month extension.

Some Democrats also appear to have conflicting views on the issue. Jamie Raskin, a ranking member of the House judiciary committee, voted to renew the law in 2024, now opposes a renewal without reform, writing in a letter to his colleagues that he believes the “safeguards put in place in 2024 have been badly eroded by the Trump Administration”.

“These reforms relied on internal watchdogs to keep the intelligence agencies in line and on the Administration to accurately report its own abuses to Congress and the courts,” he wrote.