Republican senators warn surveillance program may lapse after Trump
intel pick backlash
[June 09, 2026]
By JOEY CAPPELLETTI, MARY CLARE JALONICK and ERIC TUCKER
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.”
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Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte walks
outside the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
“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.
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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
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