House GOP Pushes Surveillance Extension, Senate Scramble Ahead

0:00On April 30th, House Republicans pushed through a three-year extension of a key surveillance program just before its Friday deadline. The vote was 235 to 191, with a bunch of Democrats crossing over to join most Republicans. It adds some oversight like, monthly reviews and penalties for misuse, but skips the war requirement critics wanted. This is Section 702 of Pfizer, letting agencies like the NSA and FBI grab communications from foreign targets without a judge's okay. Problem is, it often picks up Americans' data, too, when they talk to those targets. House leaders finally got enough holdouts on board after earlier failures. Lawmakers have split hard on this. Some Republicans like Chip Roy push back, saying it tramples forth amendment rights. Democrats call it a blank check with weak guardrails, though a few like Jim Himes back it as vital for Intel. Now it heads to the Senate, where majority leader John Thune says they probably need a short-term fix first, maybe 60 days. It's tangled with a bill banning central bank digital currency, making passage tougher.

1:05Keep an eye on the Senate's scramble as the deadline looms, could mean quick patches or bigger fights over privacy versus security. From around the world, powered by AI, this is Global News Today.