President Donald Trump’s decision to put the head of a federal housing agency in charge of the intelligence community has created a new political problem for a major surveillance law that Congress is struggling to negotiate.
Trump’s Tuesday announcement that he was choosing Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence drew early pushback from most Democrats and some Republicans, who questioned Pulte’s lack of national security experience. But the timing also complicates a fight over Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which Congress has struggled for months to approve a long-term reauthorization for.
Section 702 is a powerful surveillance authority that lets the government collect communications of foreigners overseas, but it has drawn privacy concerns because Americans’ communications can also be swept up and searched without a warrant. Already, some of the holdouts in Congress who were skeptical of approving a longer reauthorization were balking at how the Trump administration could use the tool.
“I think it creates a distraction because now you’re going to ask people to vote on something that a DNI has a role in,” Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who supports renewing Section 702, told NOTUS of Trump selecting Pulte for the role. “I don’t know why, given that we were so close, why they would have created that additional potential hurdle.”
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Tillis said he remains firmly behind the program. But he said the timing of Pulte’s appointment could give Democrats another reason to oppose reauthorization.
“Are people going to try and use that? Democrats in particular?” Tillis said. “I don’t think they should, but could that be the reason why they get to a no on reauthorization?”
Democrats were quick to confirm this could be a major issue.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday that Pulte’s appointment “will jeopardize the effort to pass surveillance legislation that was already on life support.”
“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?” Jeffries said at a press conference.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the appointment “insane.” He said that the tool is “critically important,” but that Pulte’s appointment hurts “the ability to kind of make the case.”
Asked if the timing complicates FISA reauthorization, Warner said it “doesn’t help.”
“You take somebody with no national security experience, no intelligence experience, and it feels like his only qualification is he’s willing to do whatever Donald Trump wants,” he said.
Democrats are pointing to Pulte’s record as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency as a warning sign for his new intelligence role. There, Pulte has made criminal referrals involving Trump critics over alleged mortgage issues. Democrats say that demonstrates a track record of using government power against political opponents, and is a reason Pulte should not be trusted with far more sensitive intelligence authority.
Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats and sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was “puzzled” by the appointment.
“For those of us who feel it’s important to pass FISA, this doesn’t help,” King said, adding he hopes the appointment will not derail the surveillance bill.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, one of Congress’ leading surveillance critics, wrote on X that Pulte’s appointment is “one more reason every single Democrat should vote against rubber stamping the Trump administration’s FISA Section 702 spying powers.”
Rep. Ted Lieu was even more direct.
“I will be a hard NO on FISA Section 702 reauthorization,” the California Democrat wrote on X. “Whether or not the totally unqualified and corrupt Bill Pulte gets confirmed, Trump’s nomination of Pulte has already shown Trump would have no problem with weaponizing intelligence against Americans he doesn’t like.”
Congress passed a 45-day extension of Section 702 in late April after lawmakers failed to agree on a longer reauthorization, giving them until mid-June to resolve the fight. The debate has split both parties, with national security hawks arguing the program is essential while privacy-minded lawmakers demand stronger limits on warrantless searches involving Americans.
Nonetheless Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley sounded optimistic about the state of the talks.
“It’s in pretty good shape, as far as I can tell,” Grassley told NOTUS. “Every reaction we had, it looks to me like we got something that’s bipartisan, bicameral.”
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