The House Intelligence Committee unanimously approved a bill Thursday that would renew a powerful spy authority, as Congress took steps to temporarily continue the program while lawmakers hammer out differences over privacy protections.
The committee vote to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the U.S. government to collect digital communications of foreigners located outside the country, comes just weeks before the authority expires at the end of the year.
But the program also sweeps up the communications of Americans and allows the FBI to search through data without a warrant using information such as an email address, and there are competing proposals for adding privacy protections.
