The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for three years, sending the bill to the Senate ahead of tonight’s deadline. The program allows U.S. intelligence agencies to intercept the electronic communications of foreign nationals outside the United States. But some of the data collected under FISA’s Section 702 authority also includes communications with Americans. Democratic Congressmember Rashida Tlaib of Michigan blasted the measure, saying it “has been used to spy on Black Lives Matter protesters, members of Congress, journalists, and more.” Forty-two Democrats joined most House Republicans in advancing the legislation.

Hajar Hammado, a senior policy adviser at Demand Progress, said, “These Democrats defied their constituents and common sense to undercut meaningful privacy reforms in the House and instead voted to hand over sweeping spy powers to the Trump administration. This means continuing warrantless backdoor searches and allowing an increasing number of federal agencies to exploit the data broker loophole to supercharge AI and fuel mass domestic surveillance.”