Congress

Senate Republicans propose 3-year extension of key surveillance power

Published

4 months ago

June 2, 2026

Senate Republicans are proposing a three-year extension of a key surveillance power that would include new guardrails and penalties for intelligence abuses but doesn’t include some of the biggest demands made by a bipartisan coalition of privacy hawks.

A copy of the bill reviewed by Blue Light News would extend the program through June 12, 2029. It also includes a three-year ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a digital currency — a gesture toward House Republican hard-liners who have pushed for a permanent ban.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) took the lead in drafting the bill, which is being circulated ahead of the June 12 to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which targets foreigners abroad but has come under controversy because of its ability to sweep in Americans.

A spokesperson for Cotton didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the legislation, which has not been publicly released but is being privately circulated.

Cotton consulted with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, as he drafted the bill in hopes of garnering enough bipartisan support to overcome a Democratic filibuster. Speaker Mike Johnson’s team has also been reviewing the text.

However, the push for Democratic support was complicated Tuesday by President Donald Trump’s decision to name Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence. The appointment of Pulte, a close Trump political ally with no known intelligence experience, has fueled concerns from Democrats that he could weaponize the intelligence community against the president’s perceived political enemies.

Warner lambasted the pick during a Senate hearing Tuesday, saying Pulte’s appointment would make it harder to convince fellow lawmakers to renew Section 702 ahead of its looming expiration.

“What qualifications from my standpoint does Mr. Pulte bring to the office? Well, he has shown that he is willing to do anything that President Trump wants, legal or otherwise,” Warner said.

There are also lingering concerns among some far-right Republicans, particularly in the House, that could threaten passage of a long-term deal. One House GOP hard-liner granted anonymity to candidly describe the situation said that “there remain serious concerns.”

The copy of the bill obtained by Blue Light News has some similarities to an extension of the spy program the House passed in April, including new penalties for violating search standards, a requirement for an attorney’s sign-off on some FBI’s searches and additional transparency provisions. It also narrows the definition of an “electronic communications service provider” after Congress previously broadened it in a way that sparked bipartisan concerns, though the change is unlikely to satisfy skeptics of the intelligence community.

The bill also does not include two other major provisions demanded by privacy hawks in the House and Senate: requiring federal officials to obtain a warrant before searching for Americans in databases of intelligence obtained abroad and preventing law enforcement from buying Americans’ information from data brokers without a warrant.

Meredith Lee Hill and John Sakellariadis contributed to this report.

Congress

Sanders to rally for Troy Jackson in Maine

Published

6 hours ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Bernie Sanders will hit the road for Troy Jackson in Maine starting Oct. 10, the first time the progressive leader will stump for the candidate this cycle.

The Vermont independent plans to hold three rallies with Jackson, according to an itinerary shared first with Blue Light News: first in Bangor on Oct. 10th followed by Lewiston and Biddeford on Oct. 11.

The Maine swing will kick off Sanders’ travel for the final stretch of the midterms, covering ground throughout October for House and Senate candidates, POLITICO reported.

“Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them,” Jackson spokesperson Dan Gottlieb told Blue Light News. “Susan Collins has had nearly 30 years to deliver, and working Mainers are still getting squeezed while she serves the billionaires and corporate interests who bankroll her campaigns. Mainers don’t need another six years of excuses.”

Sanders campaigned ahead of major wins for progressives in the primary season, speaking at more than 60 rallies since last year’s Fight the Oligarchy tour and endorsing more than 90 candidates up and down the ballot.

He’s also opening his substantial $23 million campaign war chest, POLITICO reported, and contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars toMinnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and others including Angie Nixon in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,

Sanders will return to Maine after initially backing Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate. Allegations reported by POLITICO ultimately led him to call on the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.

Sanders had not formally endorsed Jackson since he clinched the nomination from Platner, though he previously backed Jackson’s initial run for governor.

Congress

Hill: Trump’s ‘lack of favorability’ creating challenging politics

Published

6 hours ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he has “no concerns” about winning back his Arkansas seat in the upcoming midterm elections, but the six-term House member acknowledged the political headwinds for his party.

“I consider the atmosphere a very tough political environment right now because of President [Donald] Trump’s lack of favorability at the top, and you know people are concerned about, as I say, what it’s like to live under an inflated economy the last four years,” Hill said in an interview.

Hill is in a solidly red district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and said he is up against a “weaker candidate this time than I’ve had in past races.” Polling in the district, however, has shown a tighter race. The two polls done this year placed Democratic challenger Chris Jones ahead of Hill by a few percentage points. Any perceived polling victory for Jones is still well within the margin of error, and one of the polls had a Democratic sponsor.

Stephannie Lane Baker, a spokesperson for Jones, said that “of all the Republicans in Congress, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee doesn’t get to dodge responsibility for this economy. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.”

Additionally, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s PAC, Ready for the Fight, committed more than $1 million in television ads through the next five weeks for Jones’ race in Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the PAC confirmed. Overall Democratic spending on advertising for the race was just over $1 million, primarily made up by contributions from the Ready for the Fight PAC, with Republicans spending almost $2.7 million on ad buys, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking service.

Hill said he has addressed affordability concerns “head on” this Congress.

“My work on housing, my work on the Price Stability Act, my work to try to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and drop the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP,” Hill said. “All these things can contribute to a more affordable environment for people. So I’ve tried to make that a forefront of my campaign this year.”

Hill was a key architect of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing affordability bill that became law in July. The Price Stability Act, which is unlikely to become law this year, would narrow the Federal Reserve’s current dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and price stability to focus exclusively on containing inflation.

Congress

Sanders, AOC, Merkley propose bill to ban Flock cameras

Published

11 hours ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Friday released text of legislation intended to ban the use of Flock surveillance cameras and other license plate readers.

Flock has faced severe public backlash against the surveillance technology following reports that police officers misused the technology to track women, and it has the largest network of license plate readers across the U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) hosted a hearing last month probing its potential misuses, although the company’s CEO Garrett Langley did not appear.

The latest bill, unveiled Friday and named the Ban Flock Act, would bar federal agencies from using automated license plate readers or accessing data from the technology and prevent federal grants from funding states and local governments that use automated license plate readers.

“At a time of growing concern about the unchecked power of artificial intelligence, Flock is eviscerating the very notion of privacy by installing tens of thousands of cameras in communities across America without their consent,” Sanders, who has positioned himself as a leading progressive voice on AI technology, said in a statement. “We cannot allow America to become a surveillance state where a handful of AI oligarchs profit by giving the government the power to track our every movement.”

Ocasio-Cortez similarly condemned the surveillance capabilities of the technology and said the bill would “enforce our constitutional right to privacy and protect Americans from both corporate and government surveillance.”

“No one should have this unchecked surveillance power at their fingertips,” Merkley added.

Republicans have introduced similar efforts to regulate license plate readers, such as Hawley’s Stop Flock Abuse Act, which would require audits and limits on unauthorized searches.

Flock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.