A foreign surveillance law could expire Friday as Democrats block a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the key spy authority over their concerns about President Trump’s pick to temporarily lead the U.S. intelligence community.
Democrats say William J. Pulte, acting director of national intelligence and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is “grossly unqualified” and a risk to national security.
“Someone who doesn’t even meet the basic qualification of the law to be director of national intelligence shouldn’t be put in that position, particularly when he’s got a history of already taking and weaponizing confidential information,” said Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
The law requires the director of national intelligence to have “extensive” national security experience, but Mr. Pulte does not. His background is in investment and real estate.
Mr. Trump has defended Mr. Pulte as “smart” and capable of quickly adapting to the role, which he has insisted will be temporary.
Mr. Warner and all other Senate Democrats, except Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted early Friday to block a three-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act from advancing.
The procedural test failed on a 47-52 vote, with seven Republicans also voting in opposition over policy concerns.
Section 702 authorizes the collection of targeted foreign intelligence information to help combat terrorist plots.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, said allowing the program to go dark would be a “dangerous mistake.”
“Hopefully, responsible folks come to the table and help us at least figure this out,” Mr. Thune said. “The naming of Pulte to that position — although the timing arguably wasn’t the best — I still don’t think it ought to derail something that’s this important.”
Mr. Warner, responding on “Fox News Sunday,” said: “As important as 702 is, preserving the integrity of our intelligence community, that is more important than anything we’re going to face.”
Mr. Thune said leaders of both parties in both chambers have negotiated “a ton of reforms” for the three-year reauthorization of FISA Section 702.
The bill had not been released publicly, but it was privately circulated among senators ahead of the test vote. The procedural motion was to bring up a previous House-passed FISA bill, which the Senate would use to substitute in the new deal.
The measure reportedly includes and expands on House changes aimed at cracking down on abuses of the spy authority.
Mr. Warner said “more than enough” Democrats would have been willing to help pass the bill had Mr. Trump not tapped Mr. Pulte to serve as acting director of national intelligence.
The president told reporters Friday that he would be interviewing five “very good” and “very respected” candidates with national security experience for the permanent position, which requires Senate confirmation.
Mr. Trump is unlikely to announce his pick this week.
“The only right answer — and I don’t have a lot of confidence that it’s going to happen — is that the president says, ’Oops, that was a mistake,’ and pulls the Bill Pulte appointment in favor of somebody who will give not just Democrats, but everybody, more confidence that this is somebody with some experience who won’t abuse intelligence authorities,” Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
A bipartisan coalition is needed to pass a FISA reauthorization, not only because of the Senate filibuster but also because some Republicans oppose renewing the law without significant changes.
Seven Republican senators voted with Democrats against the procedural motion over concerns about the underlying law, which allows incidental collection of Americans’ data without a warrant.
Those Republicans are part of a broad bipartisan group of privacy hawks who want to add a requirement for national security agencies to obtain a judicial warrant before they can search the FISA database for a U.S. person.
“We can’t give the swamp unchecked power to spy on law-abiding Americans,” said Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, one of the Republican no votes. “Warrants must be required to protect our constitutional liberties and uphold the Fourth Amendment.”
Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat and a leading privacy advocate, said even the president’s removal of Mr. Pulte from the intelligence role would not solve the real problem with FISA.
“Warrantless FISA surveillance depends on a handful of government officials to choose not to misuse the most powerful spying apparatus the world has ever seen,” he said. “Americans are demanding real protections written into the law, not promises that the next guy will be trustworthy.”
The three-year reauthorization that Senate Republican leaders want to pass stops short of adding a warrant requirement but reportedly includes a provision to prevent Section 702 data that captures information on Americans from being used in criminal prosecutions against them, unless authorized by the FISA court.
• Tom Howell Jr. contributed to this report.
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