The House did not pass a short-term extension of a powerful surveillance tool Thursday morning as members headed out of town for a recess, all but ensuring the spy power’s statutory authority would lapse going into the weekend.
The vote to reject a reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act now sends the surveillance power into uncharted territory, with questions over whether the lapse will handicap the ability of the U.S. government to collect information from service providers.
