CAPITOL HILL — Lawmakers agreed to a 10-day extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which had been set to expire Monday, to allow more time to debate new protections and safeguards. The provision enables warrantless monitoring of certain communications involving Americans.

Section 702, originally passed in 2008, allows the government to collect the communications of foreigners abroad and enables the collection of messages, emails and other transmissions from Americans when they contact foreigners. The government can perform warrantless searches on the communications collected under the statute. Lawmakers must renew the authority every few years.

In March, Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, and co-sponsors in the House and Senate introduced a sweeping FISA reform bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., introduced a new version of the spy law that would extend Section 702. The White House pushed congressional Republicans to pass an extension without any changes.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., addressed the program on the Senate floor. "For years, there have been jaw-dropping abuses of section 702," he said. "Government officials have searched through 702 data to find Black Lives Matter protesters, political campaign donors, elected officials, even a state judge who complained about police abuses."

Wyden also addressed government surveillance practices. "America's law enforcement agencies should be able to harness technology responsibly, but new tools require new rules," he said. "Without new rules, you can count on the executive branch to run roughshod over Americans' privacy rights and constitutional freedoms."

At a press conference announcing a new bill to close data-collection loopholes, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., raised concerns about the scale of available government data. "Imagine instead of doing a query with one person that you turned AI loose on these databases. There's virtually nothing the government can't know about you," Massie said.