Senate blows up renewal of key surveillance power to protest Trump pick of Bill Pulte as acting DNI
WASHINGTON — The Senate blocked a bid Friday to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in protest of President Trump’s recent selection of housing regulator Bill Pulte to serve as acting director of national intelligence.Despite needing a simple majority to advance, the Senate voted 52-47 against opening debate on a three-year extension of the warrantless electronic surveillance authority.Seven Republicans — Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt of Missouri, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rich Scott of Florida and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama — voted with 45 Democrats against advancing the extensionSen.John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the only member of his party to back Section 702, which will lapse at 11:59 p.m.
June 12 absent congressional approval.The provision authorizes spy agencies to ingest vast amounts of foreign communications intercepted over the internet without a court order.National security officials describe the haul as an indispensable trove to search for intelligence on adversaries and terrorists.Section 702, however, has been the subject of more than a decade of tension between security hawks and civil libertarians demanding a warrant requirement for incidentally collected records on US citizens.Democrats explicitly attributed the failed Friday vote to Pulte, and senior party leaders who helped pass FISA extensions in the past, such as Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.), withheld their support.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blasted Pulte ahead of the vote, calling him “a hack who does Trump’s bidding, no matter how egregious that bidding might be.”While surveillance authorities generally get reauthorized despite congressional posturing and brinksmanship, it’s unclear how the impasse over Pulte might end.The 38-year-old Floridian has served since last March as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and concurrently as chairman of Fanni...