Congress keeps finding itself in the same place with Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: up against a deadline, divided over reforms, and forced into last-minute decisions on a program everyone agrees is essential.

This time, the deadline is not theoretical. On April 30, Congress passed a 45-day extension only hours before Section 702 was set to lapse, pushing the next deadline to June 12. It was already the second short-term extension in 10 days. That is no way to govern one of the most sensitive intelligence authorities in American law.