Trump meets Johnson as outcry over Bill Pulte threatens Fisa renewal | Trump administration
Donald Trump met with House speaker Mike Johnson at the White House on Tuesday, as pressure mounts on the president to appoint a permanent director of national intelligence; Some Republicans believe the move is the only way to save a controversial and powerful surveillance bill before it expires at the weekend.
At issue is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a post-9/11 authority that allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect the communications of foreign targets abroad without a court order. Although the program aims to target non-Americans abroad, it can also scan communications related to Americans. This powerful and controversial spying tool will expire at midnight on Thursday.
While there is often a crisis when it comes to reauthorizing surveillance powers with some reform, the latest issue centers on Trump’s decision earlier this month to appoint Bill Pulte, a housing finance official and political stalwart with no intelligence background, as acting director of national intelligence.
Trump ignored any hint of controversy in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday evening, confirming that Pulte would “take over as Acting Director of National Intelligence on Friday, June 19” and “remain as Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Chairman of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac.”
Failure to reauthorize the spy tool does not mean the surveillance program itself will go dark. Fisa court published one year certificate Section 702 collection is permitted until approximately March 2027, and the statute includes a provision that allows collection to continue under this order even if the law lapses.
House majority leader Steve Scalise told reporters on Thursday that Johnson was “working with the president at the White House to finalize this agreement on Fisa.” According to Reuters.
The move immediately collapsed the three-year-old bipartisan renewal agreement, and all Senate Democrats except Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman voted to block the legislation. Seven Republicans also opposed the bill on civil liberties grounds; This means that neither a long-term nor a short-term patch currently has the 60 votes needed to keep the mandate alive.
Senate majority leader John Thune said Monday that a credible permanent nominee is now the most feasible way to break the deadlock.
“The administration will likely have to find a permanent nominee at some point who will be seen by at least a sufficient number of Democrats to gain their support.” he told Punchbowl News.
The serious extent of the damage was revealed in an earlier letter It was sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio by two of the Senate’s most hawkish Republicans, intelligence committee chairman Tom Cotton and judiciary committee chairman Chuck Grassley; Both worked for months to get the bill passed.
They wrote “with regret” and asked Rubio to prepare the administration for “a possible significant gap in foreign intelligence gathering.” In their letter, they “strongly encourage” the secretary to “identify all intelligence targets where the United States could lose valuable intelligence information” without the means.
Officials also called on the White House to prepare an emergency executive order to limit disruptions if the authority expires. The letter did not mention the Fisa court’s existing one-year certification, which currently provides the legal basis for ongoing collection.
A Senate aide familiar with reauthorization discussions said Cotton’s office, which introduced the 702 reauthorization bill, has not discussed any potential Fisa reform with Democrats.
While attention has focused on the DNI vacancy, the attorney general is also one of the secretary’s assistants. Responsible for oversight of Part 702including approving surveillance targeting procedures and overseeing the FBI’s use of 702-derived information.
That role is currently held by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general and a former Trump defense attorney with little national security experience, raising questions about how much impact a change at the DNI would have on the operation of the program.
What complicates matters further is that White House officials are using the standoff to advance a long-running effort. significantly reduce or eliminate entirely the office of the director of national intelligence. This means Trump will not replace Pulte’s predecessor, Tulsi Gabbard, who is expected to leave at the end of the month.
Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat and vice chairman of the intelligence committee, said Sunday that Pulte’s lack of credentials made it nearly impossible to secure Democratic votes.
“It’s going to be a very tough road to convince Democrats that we allow Mr. Pulte to be potentially accountable for how this tool is used or manipulated,” Warner said on CNN. “This was self-inflicted harm.”
