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A botched bid to reauthorize the nation’s controversial surveillance powers could gain momentum again after President Donald Trump struck a key deal with Democrats.
Congress was on track to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was set to expire on Friday, but that momentum was cut short when Trump tapped his current director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, to serve as interim head of the country’s intelligence agencies.
Pulte, who will take over the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on June 19, has indicated that he will continue to stick to a plan that has already been marred by disagreements over the controversial Section 702 FISA.
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President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on June 10, 2026. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)
“This is not an issue between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans, this was the administration throwing a live hand grenade into a 10-day critical authorization,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., .
Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Tom Cotton, R-Ark., produced a compromise, a three-year reauthorization and changes to Section 702 that would have progressed without Trump’s decision to tap Pulte.
Given the logjam, Trump on Wednesday announced that he is looking for a replacement to lead ODNI and asked Congress to produce a temporary extension to keep the program going for now.
“I will say this, [Pulte is] we’re going to be there for a while, while we choose someone else,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re interviewing five different people. They’re all very good, very different, and we’re going to put someone there.”
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The move could help some Senate Democrats get over the hump.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he believes that at least knowing Pulte will be out may be enough to sway some Democrats to support the expansion.
“I think knowing who the DNI is going to be, if it’s somebody that people trust, that makes the FISA question a lot easier,” Kaine said.
For some, Trump’s ambiguity about how long Pulte will last remains a worrisome prospect.
“That’s the problem,” said Sen. Angus King, Maine. “If Mr. Pulte is going to be there for an indefinite period of time, then I cannot vote for an extension. If there is a timeline, measurable, defined, I would consider it.”
Lawmakers are currently considering a possible three-week extension to the program, which has given conservatives and Democrats heartburn.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., speaks during a press conference for Senate Republicans at the US Capitol on June 2, 2026, led by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, RW. Wow. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc.)
It’s one of the rare issues at the Capitol where privacy hawks on both sides of the aisle are calling for sweeping reforms, particularly warrant requirements to prevent Americans from falling prey to information gathered from foreigners under Section 702.
That fact means some Republicans and Democrats won’t vote for the compromise — six Republicans joined nearly every Democrat in blocking a move to reauthorize the program last week.
“Why don’t we look at foreigners and not look at Americans? It’s a new concept,” said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.
That means Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., will need all the help he can get from Democrats.
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“We need Democrat votes,” Thune said. “And, as I’ve said before, I think that regardless of what you think of Bill Pulte, giving the changes that were included in the 702 reauthorization is a protection, regardless of who’s in that job, or whatever party is in power here.”
But others argue that Friday’s deadline is not a dead end for the program.
Senate Minerals Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said on the Senate floor that the charge to rush the approval down by the end of the week “is not true.”
“Existing law allows Section 702 collection to continue under a FISA court order for another year, even without congressional reauthorization,” Durbin said. “Congress can and should take time to get this right.”
