The deadline to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is approaching a week from now, on June 12, and lawmakers appear no closer to reaching an agreement. If this feels like déjà vu, it’s because we’ve been here before. Congress reauthorized Section 702 in late April — but only for 45 days, so lawmakers could negotiate reforms to the controversial wiretapping authority.
“There were no reformers in the conversations that took place. Full stop,” Sean Witka, executive director of Demand Progress, said in a press call Friday afternoon, hours after the Senate voted 52 to 47 against a deal that would have renewed Section 702 for three years, requiring sixty votes. Democrats voted against the plan because of President Donald Trump’s announcement Thursday that Bill Pulte — a businessman with no security clearance — would serve as acting director of national intelligence. Seven Republicans also joined him.
As head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Pulte will oversee 18 agencies. In an interview on Friday with wall street journalTrump suggested he wanted Pulte to dismantle ODNI. “We’ve made the Department of Education too small, and it should be too small,” Trump said. according to magazineTrump suggested Pulte Fire intelligence staff, who served under the Obama and Biden administrations.
Critics of the so-called “clean” expansion of Section 702 – without reforms such as requiring warrants for questions involving US persons – have cited Trump’s well-documented abuses of his surveillance powers. Pulte’s appointment has created a headwind for the administration, which is urging Republican legislators to reauthorize Section 702 without reform.
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