A foreign surveillance law could expire next Friday as Democrats block a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the key spy authority over their concerns about President Trump’s pick to temporarily lead the U.S. intelligence community.
Democrats say acting Director of National Intelligence William J. Pulte, whose primary role in the administration is Federal Housing Finance Agency director, is “grossly unqualified” and a risk to national security.
“Someone who doesn’t even meet the basic qualification of the law to be Director of National Intelligence shouldn’t be put in that position, particularly when he’s got a history of already taking and weaponizing confidential information,” said Virginia Sen. Mark R. Warner, top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Mr. Warner and all Senate Democrats except for Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman voted early Friday to block a three-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act from advancing.
The procedural test vote failed 47-52, with seven Republicans also voting in opposition over policy concerns.
Section 702 authorizes intelligence collection of targeted foreign intelligence information to help combat terrorism plots.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said it would be a “dangerous mistake” to allow the program to go dark.
“Hopefully, responsible folks come to the table and help us at least figure this out,” the South Dakota Republican said. “The naming of Pulte to that position — although the timing arguably wasn’t the best — I still don’t think it ought to derail something that’s this important.”
Mr. Thune said the three-year reauthorization of FISA Section 702 has “a ton of reforms” negotiated by leaders of both parties in both chambers.
Mr. Warner said there would have been “more than enough” Democrats willing to help pass the bill had Mr. Trump not tapped Mr. Pulte to serve as acting DNI.
Seven Republican senators voted with Democrats in opposition to the test vote over concerns about the underlying law allowing incidental collection of Americans’ data without a warrant.
Those Republicans are part of a broad bipartisan group of privacy hawks who want to add a requirement for national security agencies to obtain a judicial warrant before being able to search the FISA database for a U.S. person.
