GOP Senators Warn of Surveillance Lapse06/09 09:42

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans are warning the White House that a critical 
surveillance authority is likely to lapse this week amid bipartisan backlash 
over President Donald Trump's pick to temporarily lead the nation's 
intelligence community.

   Sen. Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. 
Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sounded the alarm 
in a letter over the weekend after a failed procedural vote to extend the 
program.

   The senators urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also acts as the 
president's National Security Advisor, to prepare "for a potential significant 
gap in foreign intelligence collection" if the authority expires. Section 702 
of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, set to lapse June 12, allows 
agencies including the CIA, National Security Agency and FBI to collect 
communications from foreign targets overseas without a warrant.

   In a response obtained by The Associated Press, Rubio replied to the 
senators that he understands the "political challenges" but said he is "deeply 
disappointed" that Democrats are opposing the legislation.

   "Allowing Section 702 to expire would have dire impacts on our ability to 
keep the nation secure," Rubio wrote.

   Efforts to secure a long-term extension of the program already faced hurdles 
because of bipartisan concerns that the program can incidentally collect 
Americans' communications. Privacy advocates and some lawmakers have been 
pushing to create a new warrant requirement before those communications can be 
searched.

   Senate leaders from both parties appeared to be nearing bipartisan agreement 
on a long-term extension, but the effort collapsed after Trump selected federal 
housing finance regulator Bill Pulte to serve as acting director of national 
intelligence.

   Democrats and several Republicans registered their opposition to Trump's 
selection of Pulte, arguing the federal housing finance regulator lacks the 
experience needed to oversee the nation's 18 intelligence agencies and has used 
his current position to investigate some of the president's perceived political 
rivals.

   "Why the president would throw this live hand grenade of Bill Pulte in 10 
days before this is due to expire, I'm not sure," Sen. Mark Warner, the top 
Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on ABC's "This Week."

   Pulte pick upends bipartisan deal

   Even as they say it is critical, Democrats have said they won't have the 
votes to renew the surveillance authority unless Pulte's appointment is 
withdrawn. Republican leaders tried to start the process last week, but seven 
Republicans joined nearly all Democrats in blocking a long-term extension.

   "The White House bears the responsibility to fix this," Warner said. "They 
have the power to do it. They can do it today. Let's see what happens."

   Trump has said that Pulte won't be his permanent pick, but has not announced 
a nominee to be confirmed by the Senate.

   Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that there are "conversations" 
around the White House nominating a permanent pick for the job before the 
surveillance authority expires. But he said he wasn't sure what they would 
decide to do.

   "We have a deadline ahead of us. We need Democrat votes," Thune said. "The 
naming of Pulte to that position, although the timing arguably wasn't the best, 
I still don't think it ought to derail something that's this important."

   Thune has also expressed concern over Pulte's pick, saying the nation's top 
intelligence post should not be "weaponized" and that the job should be filled 
by "professionals." Cotton, who rarely strays from supporting Trump and is a 
leading advocate for the surveillance authority, declined to endorse Pulte last 
week, saying only that he had "no observations on the matter."

   "He's not qualified for the long-term position," Republican Sen. James 
Lankford, another member of the Intelligence Committee, told "Fox News Sunday." 
"That's been clear on this. He has no national security background."

   Both Republican and Democratic senators skeptical of Pulte pointed to his 
record at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In the role, he's been linked 
with criminal referrals over allegations of mortgage fraud by public officials 
Trump sought to punish, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, a 
Democrat; Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and Lisa Cook, a board member of the 
Federal Reserve.

   "Clearly to get to good-faith negotiations the effort to elevate Bill Pulte 
as the acting director of national intelligence should be reversed. 
Immediately," House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said.

   A key surveillance tool

   The current reauthorization debate is hardly the first time that lawmakers 
have grappled with the fate of the surveillance program, particularly after a 
flurry of revelations about government misuse of the vast trove of intelligence 
it collects.

   The topic in recent years has scrambled predictable partisan alliances, with 
Democratic critics of the Trump administration uniting with skeptics of 
government power on the right in voicing concerns about Section 702's renewal.

   In 2024, for instance, those divisions nearly caused the program to lapse. 
The Senate barely missed its midnight deadline that year before approving by a 
60-34 margin legislation to reauthorize Section 702 that was subsequently 
signed by then-President Joe Biden.

   In a post on X, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche urged Democrats "to 
come back to the table with their Republican counterparts."

   The authority is "one of our nation's key tools for finding and stopping 
foreign terrorists," Blanche said.

   Cotton and Grassley said they believed Democratic leaders would not support 
another short-term extension of the surveillance authority and urged Rubio to 
prepare contingency plans. They said Trump should consider an executive order 
to prevent a disruption in intelligence collection.

   Democrats and Republicans have said they were close on a bipartisan deal on 
a long-term extension and could still move quickly should a change occur before 
Friday. Still, the bill would likely need to go through the House -- and the 
two chambers so far have disagreed on a separate issue regarding central 
banking digital currency.

   Republicans are already warning of the consequences if Congress fails to act.

   "If it goes dark, then it would be a calamitous situation for the country," 
House Speaker Mike Johnson said.