The Republican Civil War Over FISA Explained

The Republican divide of FISA has continued to grow as Representatives Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Thomas Massie of Kentucky announced the introduction of their Surveillance Accountability Act, which seeks to add stronger thresholds for surveillance use – a key sticking point between rival wings of the party.

The new act is the next salvo in the growing divide over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is a federal law that governs how the U.S. government collects foreign intelligence, including through electronic surveillance approved by a specialized court.

Republicans have been deeply divided over reauthorizing the act, with repeated clashes between party leadership and a bloc of conservative lawmakers who argue the surveillance authority has been abused. House GOP leaders backed a "clean" extension of Section 702, framing it as essential to national security, while hard‑right members demanded stronger warrant requirements and limits on how Americans' data can be queried.

Massie and Boebert’s bill aims to amend current code to require warrants for government searches and provide individuals a path to bring lawsuit against the government in the case that the Fourth Amendment has been violated – the amendment that protects individuals against “unreasonable searches and seizures” by the government and issuing probable cause.

The issue is one that is near and dear to Boebert, who was one of the Republican lawmakers named in Operation Rampart Twelve – which also included the likes of Representatives Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama.

“Even within the Rampart Twelve documents that I saw, facial recognition was used to see if my family, who I brought into the United States capital, was also in crowds on January 6th,” Boebert said at a press conference Thursday to announce the bill.

“It is right there in plain language, saying that they used facial recognition to try to determine that,” Boebert said. “They’re scanning our faces in public places, at protests, even at our children’s schools. The government is building secret databases. They can go through any time that they feel like it.”

“I mean, this is an absolute egregious reach. on our Fourth Amendment rights,” she added.

Newsweek reached out to the Department of Justice by email on Thursday morning for comment.

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This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 2:00 PM.