President Trump's appointment of Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence has thrown a wrench into delicate congressional negotiations over the renewal of a critical surveillance authority. Pulte, the 38-year-old director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is known more for his role as a partisan attack dog than for any national security experience.
His appointment came as a surprise to lawmakers who were close to finalizing a three-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows the collection of foreign electronic communications and is set to expire Friday. Democrats, and even some Republicans, have expressed concern that Pulte's history of weaponizing his position makes him unfit to oversee the intelligence community, potentially jeopardizing the renewal of the surveillance tool.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune stated, "We don't need a weaponized DNI. We need professionals there." Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that putting Pulte in charge makes it impossible to secure the necessary votes for renewal.
Trump has indicated he is not inclined to reverse course on Pulte's appointment before the deadline, instead pushing for another short-term extension. The situation has created a standoff that could leave the U.S.
without a key intelligence tool, despite bipartisan support for the program itself.