Lawfare Archive: FISA 702 Passes the House
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
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Summary
From April 16, 2024: Friday morning, the House of Representatives suddenly—after failing to do so earlier in the week—took up the reauthorization of FISA 702. They considered a bunch of amendments, one of which failed on a tie vote, and then proceeded to pass reauthorization of 702.
Immediately after the votes, Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes spoke with Lawfare Senior Editors Stephanie Pell and Molly Reynolds, and Lawfare Student Contributor Preston Marquis. They talked about how the center beat the coalition of the left and right on the key question of warrant requirements for U.S. person queries, about whether the civil liberties community gained anything in this protracted process or whether the administration just kicked its butt, about what happens now as the bill goes back to the Senate, and about all the little details that went into this bill.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Happy New Year. I'm Isabella Royo, Internet Lawfare, with an episode from the Lawfare |
| 0:15.4 | for January 1, 2006. On November 11, 2025, Lawfare published a piece on the looming reauthorization |
| 0:24.3 | deadline for Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, a controversial |
| 0:30.3 | surveillance authority that enables non-U.S. citizens to be investigated for foreign |
| 0:34.4 | intelligence purposes through the compelled assistance of electronic communications service providers. If not reauthorized, Section 702 will expire this April. |
| 0:43.3 | For today's archive, I chose an episode from April 16, |
| 0:47.3 | 2024, in which Benjamin Wittes spoke with Stephanie Pell, Molly Reynolds, and Preston Marquis |
| 0:53.3 | about the contents of the House's |
| 0:54.8 | reauthorization bill for FISA 702, how moderate lawmakers prevailed on the key question of warrant |
| 1:00.4 | requirements for U.S. person queries over opposition on the left and the right, whether |
| 1:05.1 | the civil liberties community gained any victories in this process, end more. |
| 1:27.0 | I'm Benjamin Wittes, and this is the Lawfare podcast, April 16, 2024. Friday morning, the House of Representatives suddenly, after failing |
| 1:32.3 | to do so earlier in the week, took up the reauthorization of FISA 702, considered a bunch of |
| 1:39.7 | amendments. One of them failed on a tie vote and then proceeded to pass reauthorization of 702. |
| 1:49.6 | Immediately after the votes, we convened in the Virtual Jungle Studio, Lawfare Senior Editor Stephanie Pell, |
| 1:58.0 | Lawfare student contributor Preston Marquis, and Lawfare Senior Editor Molly Reynolds, to talk it all through. |
| 2:06.6 | We talked about how the center beat the coalition of the left and right on the key question of warrant requirements for U.S. person queries. |
| 2:20.0 | We talked about whether the civil liberties community gained anything in this protracted |
| 2:26.3 | process or whether the administration just kicked its butt. |
| 2:30.6 | We talked about what happens now as the bill goes back to the Senate and we talked about what happens now as the bill goes back to the Senate, |
| 2:36.3 | and we talked about all the little details that went into this bill. |
| 2:42.8 | It's the Lawfare podcast, April 16th. |
... |
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