Republicans are about to put one Donald Trump-induced headache behind them — but another is right behind it.
The House is expected to send a long-stalled GOP immigration enforcement funding bill to Trump’s desk Tuesday after the president threw multiple curveballs into the process.
Now the Senate will spend the coming days wrangling over a key spy power that has repeatedly been punted over the past two months. It is set to expire Friday
But Trump’s decision to install Bill Pulte as director of national intelligence has all but quashed any chance of a long-term renewal for the Section 702 program.
With Democrats pushing for Pulte’s removal before supporting any extension, even another short-term patch for the key piece of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is in serious doubt just days before the deadline.
“The idea that we’re going to allow Mr. Pulte to be potentially in charge of how this tool is used or manipulated, that’s going to be a very uphill path to convince Democrats,” Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Senate Intelligence Democrat, said in a CNN interview Sunday. “This was a self-inflicted harm.”
Warner and other Democrats had been working with Republicans to pass a three-year extension. But the Pulte move prompted nearly every Senate Democrat to oppose a procedural vote on that deal early Friday morning. Trump didn’t help matters later that day when he told the Wall Street Journal he wants Pulte to conduct mass firings inside intelligence agencies.
The writing is on the wall: Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Intel Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) sent a letter to the administration over the weekend indicating it should prepare for a lapse in the key spy power.
Grassley piled on the pressure Sunday evening, posting on X in his trademark diction that Democrats were putting Americans’ safety at risk “RIGHT B4 WORLD CUP +AMERICA250” with their opposition to the extension. He called on them to “do what’s right for ALL Americans.”
Note that Warner and Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top House Intel Democrat, both stopped short of saying in Sunday-show interviews that they would allow Section 702 to expire if Pulte is not removed.
But the path is extremely narrow. About 15 Senate Democratic votes needed, Warner said, and very few are willing to give Trump and his hand-picked new intel chief the benefit of the doubt.
What else we’re watching:
— UTAH REPUBLICANS ERUPT: The Pentagon’s Friday move to greatly cull the list of servicemember religious classifications has elected officials Utah up in arms after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was excluded from the “Christian” category used for 20 other denominations. Sens. John Curtis, Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Mike Kennedy were among those questioning why the church wasn’t explicitly named as Christian.
— TAX FIGHT ROILS AIR-SAFETY BILL: A little-noticed provision that would make it easier for wealthy people to avoid paying state and local taxes on their private jets is sparking a partisan brawl as Congress finalizes an air-safety bill. The measure would bar tax officials from using the identifying information that aircraft are required to broadcast while flying as part of their tax-collection efforts.
Jordain Carney, Brian Faler and Calen Razor contributed to this report.
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