FISA renewal stalls after Trump names Pulte intelligence chief

A major U.S. surveillance authority is nearing expiration as President Trump’s decision to install housing regulator Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence threatens to derail a bipartisan renewal effort on Capitol Hill.

The fight centers on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign targets overseas without a warrant. The authority is set to expire at the end of the week, with CBS News reporting a Friday deadline and The Guardian reporting the cutoff as midnight Thursday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson met with Trump at the White House on Tuesday as congressional leaders searched for a way to revive the legislation. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Johnson was “over at the White House working with the president to finalize this agreement on FISA.” A source familiar with the meeting told CBS News that Johnson planned to discuss Pulte with Trump.

Pulte, who also leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has no background in national security or intelligence matters. His appointment to oversee the nation’s intelligence agencies has drawn criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, many of whom say Trump should nominate a permanent intelligence chief who can go through Senate confirmation.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday that the administration is “weighing seriously making a long-term pick” for the post and that he hopes such a move comes soon. Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said the White House has been consistent in saying Pulte will not be the full-time nominee.

Democrats say Pulte’s appointment has made an already fragile negotiation untenable. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said talks were “already in a very sensitive place” before Trump elevated Pulte. “And then Donald Trump, as he often does, tosses a hand grenade into those sensitive negotiations,” Jeffries said. He called for the appointment to be “reversed immediately” and said he would not support an extension while Pulte remains in the role.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the timing “could not be worse,” citing Pulte’s lack of national security experience and what he called his “record of abusing his office to attack Trump’s political enemies.” Pulte has issued criminal referrals to the Justice Department alleging mortgage fraud by several Trump political opponents, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and former Rep. Eric Swalwell.

Republican Sens. Tom Cotton and Chuck Grassley accused Democratic counterparts of “walking away” from a three-year extension agreement. In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as Trump’s national security adviser, they said the compromise could have received nearly 70 Senate votes and asked Rubio to identify intelligence targets that could be affected if the authority lapses. They also urged the White House, “if necessary,” to draft an executive order to address any gap.

Rubio responded that a lapse would have “dire impacts” on national security and urged Democrats to put “partisan politics” aside “before it is too late.” The Guardian reported that a FISA court has issued a yearlong certification authorizing Section 702 collection through approximately March 2027, and that the statute allows collection to continue under that order even if the law lapses.

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the impasse “self-inflicted harm.” Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the Senate compromise had stronger safeguards than the House-passed version, but that Pulte’s appointment could reduce Democratic support in the House to “single digits at best.”

Some Republicans have also objected. Sen. Thom Tillis called Pulte “the worst form of sycophant,” while Sen. John Cornyn said Pulte has “no obvious qualification” for the job. Johnson, however, rejected the idea that removing Pulte is a necessary condition for renewing FISA, saying, “Anybody that equates those two things is just playing with a dangerous situation.”