Pulte appointment ups pressure for Congress to punt on reauthorizing spy powers

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The looming deadline to renew the nation’s warrantless spy powers is clashing with a pressure campaign on the White House to yank the appointment of Bill Pulte, a controversial figure tapped to lead the intelligence community.

A growing number of Democrats have said they will not vote to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) so long as Pulte serves as the acting director of national intelligence (DNI).

It’s just the latest hiccup in the process of reauthorizing Section 702, raising the possibility that Congress may need to again pass a short-term extension of the program after already punting twice this year when Congress failed to come to agreement over how to reform the spy program.

Pulte’s appointment has sparked rare bipartisan pushback, with lawmakers in both parties questioning his qualifications and Democrats sounding the alarm about Pulte using his existing perch at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to refer numerous Trump foes for prosecution over alleged mortgage fraud.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said FISA negotiations were “already in a very sensitive place” before Pulte’s appointment.

“Then Donald Trump, as he often does, tosses a hand grenade into those sensitive negotiations by elevating Bill Pulte as a director of National Intelligence, someone who’s a political hack, a malignant clown, and he’s woefully unqualified to serve in any position in the federal government, let alone as acting director of national intelligence,” Jeffries told reporters Monday.

“Reversing the Bill Pulte appointment is a starting point, not an ending point,” for renewing Section 702, he said.

In tapping Pulte, Trump has generated calls to yank him from both those who want significant reforms to the spy program and those who are eager to see it reauthorized without a warrant requirement.

Senate Democrats last week tanked a bid to bring a Section 702 reauthorization to the floor, hindering its ability to pass before the June 12 deadline.

“Bill Pulte’s appointment to be Acting DNI was the final straw. Pulte has no business overseeing a warrantless spying program for Donald Trump, Democrats understand that,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who is among those who have called for a warrant requirement, wrote on X on Monday.

Meanwhile, some in the GOP have made similar calls.

“FISA gives us over 50% of our most sensitive intelligence and has enabled the U.S. to stop multiple terrorist attacks. Letting FISA lapse would reflect a nation paralyzed by hyper-partisanship and dysfunction,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said Monday in a post on X.

Some Democrats are hoping for two victories in the process: changes to Section 702 and the toppling of Pulte.

“They clearly have a political crisis on their hands, and I would like to use the opportunity to press the radical notion that the Constitution should govern here,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told The Hill.

“I think that there is erosion in the ranks,” he said of the drive to finish FISA this week, adding “I think there’s some punt-ification.”

There are signs President Trump is feeling the heat on Pulte.

Last week he said Pulte, who as an acting official has not been formally nominated, would not be in the role permanently, though Trump has also said he hopes the acting DNI will conduct significant firings before a new director arrives.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), however, said he’s determined to get Section 702 reauthorized this week.

“The president has a prerogative. He’s explained that Mr. Pulte is a temporary placeholder, and we’re going to pass FISA,” he told reporters.

“We’re going to pass FISA this week because it would go dark and it would be a calamitous situation for the country, so I am working to put that vote coalition together, and you’ll see it come together.”

In the Senate, lawmakers expressed doubt.

In a joint letter to National Security Adviser Marco Rubio, Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) blamed Democrats for a potential future lapse of FISA Section 702 and asked him plan for “a potential significant gap in foreign intelligence collection.”

Section 702 allows the government to spy on foreigners located abroad, but it can sweep up the communications of Americans if they communicate with anyone being surveilled.

The battle to renew it has never fallen cleanly along partisan lines, with privacy-minded reformers on both sides of the aisle demanding a warrant before accessing any information on Americans.

But those divisions are only getting sharper with Democrats wary of a straight reauthorization without further guardrails on Trump’s appointees.

Separately, Republicans have their own hurdles to renewing FISA 702.

Seven Senate Republicans also voted against bringing the Section 702 bill to the floor this week, reflecting dissatisfaction for some within the caucus about a package that didn’t include more reforms.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who has also been critical of Pulte’s appointment, told reporters Monday that “we can’t pass this on the floor without Democrats.”

Across the Capitol, members of the House Freedom Caucus have also rejected the Senate’s 702 proposal, both upset it does not include a warrant requirement as well as its inclusion of a three-year moratorium on establishing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), something the group would like to ban outright.

“I consider a temporary ban a go-live date,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), a major proponent of a CBDC ban, said last week.

House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) predicted Congress would once again punt on handling FISA 702.

“Because the Democrats appear to have connected a completely unrelated issue, which is who is the DNI to it — are going to blow it up this week and next week, probably,” he said.

“So we’ll probably have another short-term extension, and then we’ll deal with it.”

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Bill Pulte

Chuck Grassley

Don Bacon

Donald Trump

Hakeem Jeffries

Jamie Raskin

Marco Rubio

Mike Johnson

Ron Wyden

Tom Cotton

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