A critical surveillance program that underpins America's foreign intelligence gathering will expire at midnight after Congress rejected last-minute efforts to keep it alive, turning what should have been a routine procedural vote into a standoff over President Trump's choice to lead the nation's spy agencies.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has allowed U.S. intelligence officials to collect communications abroad without a warrant. The tool has been central to counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations for years, but it faced an unexpected collision this week with Democratic demands that Trump withdraw his nomination of Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence.
Pulte, who heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency and has been a major Republican donor, lacks significant intelligence experience. The choice drew swift resistance from Democrats and some Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was blunt: "Pulte has to go. He cannot be in the DNI role. It's too important."
Democrats refused to back any extension of Section 702 unless Trump ditched Pulte and picked a permanent replacement. The House vote failed 218-198, with 19 Republicans joining nearly every Democrat in opposition. The Senate's attempts to pass its own version also collapsed.
Trump moved to contain the damage Thursday by announcing Jay Clayton, a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman and U.S. attorney, as his permanent choice for intelligence director. The pivot came too late. With less than a day to the deadline, there was no path to congressional action, and the surveillance authority will lapse.
The confrontation has exposed deep tensions between the White House and Congress over intelligence leadership, though experts note the underlying debate over Fisa's reach stretches far beyond this week's drama. Jason Pye, vice president of the Due Process Institute, a nonprofit focused on civil liberties, said the concerns about Section 702's scope and oversight would persist regardless of who sits atop the intelligence community. "These debates didn't start in this Congress, and they didn't start with this administration," he said.
Author James Rodriguez: "Using a vital spy tool as leverage in a personnel dispute is how you end up with neither, and that's exactly what happened here."
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