{"id":23808,"date":"2026-06-08T08:47:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T08:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/congress-thought-it-had-a-spy-powers-deal-then-trump-came-in\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T08:47:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T08:47:21","slug":"congress-thought-it-had-a-spy-powers-deal-then-trump-came-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/congress-thought-it-had-a-spy-powers-deal-then-trump-came-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress thought it had a spy-powers deal. Then Trump came in."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Congress appeared to be on track to reauthorize a national spy program that\u2019s due to expire in the coming days. Then Donald Trump stepped in.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s decision to name Bill Pulte \u2014 a MAGA ally with no national security experience \u2014 acting director of national intelligence has upended bipartisan plans to pass a long-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which has been floating along on a stopgap patch since April amid broader political disagreements about the fate of the spy law.<\/p>\n

Members on both sides of the aisle are concerned that U.S. citizens are getting swept up in warrantless surveillance designed to target foreigners overseas and want the program to be significantly reined in. A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers was working to pass a three-year extension.<\/p>\n

But Democrats are withdrawing their support in protest of the Pulte appointment, with nearly every Democratic senator joining a handful of Republicans in tanking a procedural vote early Friday morning<\/a> that would have allowed for passage of that three-year deal before the June 12 deadline.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only the latest in a string of occasions where Trump has acted seemingly on impulse and without consideration for the political fallout and ramifications on Capitol Hill. That has complicated efforts by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s to enact the president\u2019s agenda with just months to go until the midterms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he thinks about the impact on us and the timing,\u201d Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters. \u201cWhich is unfortunate because it really has had an impact. Quite honestly, I\u2019m worried about what we\u2019re going to do on FISA.\u201d<\/p>\n

The newest FISA hiccup comes after GOP leaders saw passage of their immigration enforcement bill delayed, and almost entirely derailed, by Trump\u2019s unrelated demands \u2014 first for more money to cover security features surrounding the White House ballroom project, then over the announcement of a $1.8 billion \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund\u201d that fueled a wave of Republican furor on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

The usually even-keeled Thune has hinted publicly at frustrations over how the administration\u2019s uncoordinated decisions are making it harder to advance GOP priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cTiming is everything. And we’re trying to get some stuff done up here, things that the White House wants done that \u2026 get more complicated with the weekly announcements,\u201d Thune said last week.<\/p>\n

Thune said after Friday\u2019s failed FISA vote that it was \u201cirresponsible\u201d for Democrats to risk letting the surveillance power lapse. But when asked what impact Trump\u2019s Pulte announcement had on that vote outcome, he conceded that there \u201chave been timing issues around several things they\u2019ve done in the last few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump announced Thursday that Pulte would not be the formal nominee to succeed Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence \u2014 a move widely seen as an indirect acknowledgment his appointment was causing political headaches. Two people granted anonymity to speak candidly said Republicans viewed this step as Trump responding to private warnings from GOP lawmakers about Pulte and his impact on the spy power extension discussions.<\/p>\n

But his assurances weren\u2019t enough for Senate Democrats. All except Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted against advancing a deal that would have paired a three-year extension with some new guardrails and transparency requirements.<\/p>\n

Later Friday, Trump told the Wall Street Journal he wants Pulte to begin firing a slew of employees in the intelligence community \u2014 further inflaming Democrats who are already on guard against Trump administration efforts to downsize the federal bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

Several Democrats who were at one point inclined to help Republicans pass a long-term FISA extension now say they are not interested in cooperating until Pulte is removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just couldn’t have thrown an uglier wrench into the process,\u201d said Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m bleeding Democrats\u201d willing to vote for a deal, he added, \u201cand we didn’t have that many to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the Capitol, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, who was viewed as a Democrat likely to help advance a surveillance powers bill, said in a statement that Trump \u201cis undermining extension of this critical authority\u201d with the appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cPulte must go,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the setback in the Senate is only empowering privacy hawks in both parties who believe they now have momentum to kill any FISA deal that doesn\u2019t include sweeping changes whether Pulte gets yanked from his acting leadership post or not \u2014 further complicating matters for Thune and Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWarrantless FISA surveillance depends on a handful of government officials to choose not to misuse the most powerful spying apparatus the world has ever seen,\u201d Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement Friday. \u201cFiring Pulte won\u2019t solve the real problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans are hoping that talks between the White House and congressional Democrats can help shake things loose. Thune said \u201cthe administration will have to consider and Democrats will have to think about\u201d if any deal can get through with Pulte in his current role.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Even if the Senate can manage to pass a FISA extension this week, House GOP leaders still have several hurdles to overcome in order to pass it in time.<\/p>\n

Members of the House Freedom Caucus have revived a social media campaign demanding intelligence agencies get a warrant before searching the foreign data for Americans, and some hard-liners are pushing for the inclusion of a permanent ban on the Federal Reserve\u2019s ability to issue a digital currency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we ought to just hold our powder dry and see what actually comes out of the Senate,\u201d said Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), a proponent of incorporating both policy changes into the bill.<\/p>\n

He added it was \u201cprobably reasonable\u201d to predict another short-term deadline punt at this point. Another hard-liner, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), agreed it likely will \u201cunfortunately\u201d be needed.<\/p>\n

House Democrats say they are not inclined at this point to move things along.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need the administration to appoint someone as DNI who’s going to take FISA seriously,\u201d Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois, chair of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, said Friday.<\/p>\n

Even Himes, among the most vocal Democrats in favor of keeping FISA from expiring, wouldn\u2019t commit to supporting an extension now without first securing Pulte\u2019s removal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually looking forward to gaining Democrats\u201d to vote on an extension, Himes said. \u201cInstead, my phone is ringing with Democrats telling me to go pound sand on FISA.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congress appeared to be on track to reauthorize a national spy program that\u2019s due to expire in the coming days. Then Donald Trump stepped in. The president\u2019s decision to name Bill Pulte \u2014 a MAGA ally with no national security experience \u2014 acting director of national intelligence has upended bipartisan plans to pass a long-term […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}