Overview
- President Trump named William (Bill) Pulte to serve as acting director of national intelligence and on Wednesday asked Congress for a short-term extension of Section 702 to allow time to nominate and confirm a permanent DNI.
- Democrats have made Pulte the central sticking point and say they will not support either a short- or long-term reauthorization while he remains in the acting role because he lacks intelligence experience and has used his FHFA post to refer investigations of political opponents.
- Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader John Thune, are urging the White House to name a qualified permanent nominee to break the impasse while some GOP leaders are exploring a brief stopgap extension that would require unanimous consent in the Senate.
- Section 702, which allows warrantless collection of communications of foreign targets overseas and can incidentally sweep in Americans’ communications, is set to expire at midnight on Friday and its lapse could limit routine intelligence collection during near-term national security events.
- A likely path to a deal would be either the withdrawal of Pulte, a White House naming of a career acting DNI such as principal deputy Aaron Lukas for any short extension, or a consensual permanent nominee; under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act an acting official can serve for up to 210 days without Senate confirmation, a fact that shapes lawmakers’ leverage.