WASHINGTON, June 12 -- The legal authority behind America's most powerful surveillance program expires at midnight Friday for the first time since its creation in 2008, after the House rejected a last-ditch extension and Congress left town, and the most remarkable thing about the lapse is how little it will change: the wiretaps will keep running for another nine months on paperwork already signed.

The House voted down a short-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Thursday morning, 198 to 218, far short of the two-thirds majority the fast-track procedure required, with 19 Republicans voting no and only seven Democrats in favor of a measure that would have carried the law through July 2, ABC News rep...