Seven Republican senators joined Democrats early on Friday to block the extension of a powerful government surveillance program, a rebuke to Donald Trump for choosing an inexperienced ally as the country’s top intelligence official.
The renewal had been in question amid bipartisan concern over the US president’s appointment of Bill Pulte, a major Republican donor and heir to a home construction fortune, to serve as acting director of national intelligence.
Pulte, who has no intelligence experience, was tapped controversially earlier this week by Trump days after Tulsi Gabbard announced her exit from the role.
The Senate majority leader, John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said following the 47-52 vote that the chamber “will take another run at it” next week, but expressed little confidence the measure would pass.
Democrats, he said, had taken a “terribly irresponsible position” by opposing the extension to section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa). The program permits US intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign targets operating outside the country without a warrant.
Critics say that a wide array of domestic communications can be also be swept up without a warrant ever being sought because they may pass through US servers or involve US contacts.
The program is set to expire next week, and Friday morning’s procedural measure, if it had passed, would have set up a final Senate vote on the extension before a 12 June congressional deadline.
“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 said.
He did not mention the Republican senators who crossed the aisle to join Democrats to vote against the Fisa extension pathway.
It mirrored bitter infighting in Republican ranks in the House of Representatives last month, before Pulte’s appointment, over the warrantless spying program. An 18-month extension to section 702 was defeated 197-228 after 20 Republican representatives rebelled, and the chamber eventually settled on a 45-day “negotiation” period.
Republican discontent in the Senate, meanwhile, centered on Trump’s advancement of Pulte, who leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and has used his oversight role of the housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to publicly level a string of extraordinary allegations at Trump’s political opponents and enemies.
“We don’t need a weaponized” national intelligence director, Thune told reporters on Tuesday, warning that Pulte would face “a lengthy road ahead of him” if nominated permanently.
One day later, the Virginia Democrat Mark Warner, vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, told NPR that Pulte was only selected because he was “100% loyal to doing anything and everything President Trump demands”.
Warner said appointing a person with no intelligence, law enforcement or congressional experience would amount to “almost unilaterally disarming” against US adversaries including Russia, China and Iran. “We have no idea whether the individual even has a security clearance,” he said.
One Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, joined 46 Republican senators on the losing side of Friday’s vote.
Punchbowl News reported that Warner personally asked Thune to use his influence with the White House to reverse Pulte’s appointment, with Democratic sources making clear a bipartisan deal on section 702 could collapse if Trump refused.
On Thursday, Trump appeared to try to quell the unease, insisting Pulte was “not going to be permanent”, and that this was only a “short-term” appointment.
But the president escalated concerns over what Pulte will do as acting intelligence director by suggesting he would investigate unfounded allegation of election cheating. “He’s a very smart guy,” Trump said, “and you may find out some things about the rigged elections, etc, etc.”
Trump alleged this week without evidence that Democrats were cheating in California’s primaries. He also claimed the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles was investigating. The US attorney’s office said it had no comment.
Associated Press contributed reporting
