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.