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 on 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 has 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 on 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 POLITICO analysis of the Congressional Record.
John Sakellariadis, Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill and Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.
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