WASHINGTON — The House will vote Thursday on a short-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would push the renewal deadline to July 2, a measure all but certain to fail and leave Section 702 on track to expire Friday.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., fast-tracked the bill under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority. Democrats say they will withhold the votes needed for passage until President Trump withdraws his acting pick, Bill Pulte, the housing regulator he installed at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence last week.
The Thursday vote is the third short-term patch Congress has attempted since the original April deadline, and the first since Trump's appointment upended a bipartisan Senate deal that would have extended Section 702 for three years. Trump has since told the Wall Street Journal he wants Pulte to begin cutting intelligence-office staff before a permanent nominee arrives.
What is at stake
Section 702 lets the government collect the communications of non-U.S. persons abroad without a warrant, and in the process sweeps up the records of Americans who correspond with foreign targets. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., the House Intelligence Committee chairman, told colleagues during floor debate that a lapse would be "uncharted territory" and warned that telecommunications providers could refuse to comply with government data requests once the statute expires.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, countered that "government surveillance activities will continue unchanged" because existing certifications run through March 17, 2027. Democratic congressional staff told NPR that intelligence collection could continue under grandfathered authority for months even if Friday's deadline passes.
The Pulte impasse
Pulte, 38, is the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a Trump megadonor with no national-security background. As FHFA director he publicly accused Federal Reserve official Lisa Cook, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., of mortgage fraud; each has denied wrongdoing. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Pulte "extraordinarily unqualified." House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., described him as a "political hack" and "malignant clown" at a press conference this week.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., publicly broke with the White House last week, telling reporters, "We don't need a weaponized DNI. We need professionals there." Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., the Republican Intelligence chairman, declined to defend the pick, saying he had "no observations on the matter." Warner said Wednesday he would back a short-term extension if Trump swapped Pulte for deputy intelligence chief Aaron Lukas.
Trump holds the line
Trump has moved up Pulte's start date rather than reverse course. In a Truth Social post Wednesday, he said he was still searching for a permanent nominee "with experience in National Security" and urged Congress to pass the short-term patch in the meantime. Johnson, who has traveled to the White House twice this week, casts the patch as a concession to Democrats and is betting they will back down under public pressure. "I certainly hope that everyone will do the right thing, put politics aside, for a short-term extension," Johnson told reporters Wednesday. "We're not asking for anything heroic here."
The House votes Thursday morning. If the bill fails, Section 702 lapses at midnight Friday.