The House on Friday passed a bill to renew a controversial anti-terror foreign spying program over the objections of pro-privacy and civil liberties advocates.
The bill to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a 9/11-era provision allowing U.S. agencies to keep track of foreigners abroad but that had been used to spy on Americans in the past, is on track to go to the Senate after the 273 to 147 vote.
The fight over renewing Section 702 created an uncommon alliance between the House Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative and libertarian Republican House members, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, composed of liberal House Democrats, to demand more safeguards against spying on American citizens.
That split showed up in the vote total. The final tally on the bill was unusually bipartisan, with 147 Democrats teaming up with 126 Republicans in favor, compared to 88 Republicans and 59 …