Congress
Capitol agenda: Trump’s intel pick endangers spy powers bill
President Donald Trump’s pick of a political ally as acting director of national intelligence could jeopardize the passage of a key government spy powers renewal just as lawmakers were closing in on a deal.
Trump’s choice of Bill Pulte Tuesday evoked the outrage of Democrats and skepticism of some Republicans on Capitol Hill. Pulte has no intelligence background and has used his current perch as a housing finance regulator to push for investigations into Trump’s perceived political enemies.
“His supposed elevation as the acting director of National Intelligence will jeopardize the effort to pass surveillance legislation that was already on life support,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday. “Why in the world should Democrats or any member of Congress trust Donald Trump, Kash Patel, or Bill Pulte with the privacy of the American people?”
Senate Republicans are this week circulating a three-year extension of the spy program and had hoped to begin procedural votes before the weekend. Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton consulted with top panel Democrat Sen. Mark Warner while drafting the bill with Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, in hopes of garnering bipartisan support to ensure passage.
Warner lambasted Pulte during a Senate hearing Tuesday, saying his appointment would make it harder to convince fellow lawmakers to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ahead of its looming June 12 expiration.
The Virginia Democrat said he’s “gotta go and try to convince my Democratic colleagues and frankly some of my Republican colleagues” to support an extension of Section 702 while the administration is putting “somebody in who’s shown no respect for private information, who’s got no experience in national security, to be director of national intelligence.”
Lawmakers have for months punted the legislation, which allows surveillance of foreign individuals abroad, but can inadvertently sweep up Americans’ data. The proposal obtained by POLITICO includes new guardrails and penalties for intelligence abuses but doesn’t include some of the biggest demands made by a bipartisan coalition of privacy hawks.
Pulte made headlines last year for recommending the Department of Justice investigate Democratic lawmakers, Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook and New York Attorney General Letitia James over unproven allegations of mortgage fraud. None of the allegations have led to a conviction.
Key Republicans appeared skeptical of the pick.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday morning if the administration wanted to nominate Pulte for the position permanently “he’s got a lengthy road ahead of him.”
Two senior Senate Republican aides said Pulte could not make it through the Senate. One of the two aides, who like the other was granted anonymity to share details of private conversations, said the general view was that Pulte is far less qualified for the role than his predecessor Tulsi Gabbard, who won confirmation by a slim 52-48 margin.
“This pick is an f u to the IC,” one House Republican lawmaker said, referring to the intelligence community.
Pulte’s new position isn’t the only potential FISA renewal roadblock.
There are also lingering concerns among members of both parties that could threaten passage of a long-term deal. The draft being circulated by Senate Republicans does not contain provisions demanded by privacy hawks requiring federal officials to obtain a warrant before searching for Americans in databases of intelligence obtained abroad. Nor does it prevent law enforcement from buying Americans’ information from data brokers without a warrant.
It does, however, include a three-year ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a digital currency — a gesture toward House Republican hard-liners who have pushed for a permanent ban.
What else we’re watching:
— GOP BRACES FOR POSSIBLE VOTE-A-RAMA: Senate GOP leaders are eager to get going on their immigration enforcement bill — but first they need to know they can get through a landmine of amendment votes related to Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” Thune said in an interview that he is hoping acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s appearance before House appropriators Tuesday would get members comfortable to as soon as Wednesday start the multi-step process to pass the party-line bill. Still, he said, “we’re still trying to figure out how to land the plane.”
— HOUSE VOTING CALENDAR DWINDLES: House lawmakers return to Washington Wednesday after GOP leaders canceled yet another voting day Tuesday, further adding to the divide between the two chambers of Congress in how often they are carrying out their most basic duties. The House gaveled in 241 days during the 119th Congress versus the Senate’s 284 session days, according to a Blue Light News analysis of the Congressional Record.
John Sakellariadis, Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill and Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley rescheduled a planned vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general late Friday in a preemptive move as negotiations between the Trump administration and GOP holdouts continue.
The vote, now set for Tuesday after a scheduled Thursday vote was postponed, isn’t an indication that a deal allowing for Blanche’s confirmation is near, so much as it is a nod to Judiciary Committee rules that require three days of notice for a panel meeting.
There is no sign that President Donald Trump is about to acquiesce to the unflinching demands of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who wants a controversial settlement agreement between Trump and the IRS substantially pared back.
Cornyn, who lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate, wants the Justice Department to nullify a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and limit the scope of a tax audit immunity component of the pact.
Trump told reporters earlier Friday the fund is “dead” but added “I wish it weren’t.”
“I’d like to see them compensated,” he added, referring to people he considers victims of government abuse, including participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
To advance Tuesday, Blanche needs to pick up Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another senator on the panel with similar concerns. He can’t lose any GOP votes if he wants to be reported favorably out of the Judiciary Committee.
“Chairman Grassley wants Todd Blanche’s nomination to be successful,” said a Judiciary Committee spokesperson, who declined to be named. “Noticing the markup gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee. Grassley would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess as he has an excellent record restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.
Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.
Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.
After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.
He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.
President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.
Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.
“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.
Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.
“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”
On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.
“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.
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