President Donald Trump asked Congress on June 10 to pass a short-term extension of a federal surveillance program set to expire this week, as Senate Democrats had blocked a longer renewal over his choice of Bill Pulte to serve as acting director of national intelligence.
“I am asking Congress to send me a short-term extension of FISA to provide time for the selection and confirmation of a permanent Head of the Agency,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday morning.
Trump said Pulte, who directs the Federal Housing Finance Agency, would take over as acting director on June 19 to oversee a downsizing of the office, and that he was seeking a permanent nominee “with experience in National Security.”
He did not say he would remove Pulte, whose appointment prompted the Democratic opposition. Trump accused Democrats of taking “National Security hostage because of unrelated issues.”
When asked about Democrats who refused to renew FISA over Pulte at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said, “I don’t care what they say. … We can’t let them extort us.”
Trump added that Pulte would be in the position for a “short while” before the administration chooses someone else, adding that the administration is currently interviewing five different people for the position.
When asked about his comments on Pulte downsizing DNI, Trump added that people have wanted the agency “downsized for a long time” but did not expand further on plans for the agency.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act expires June 12. It allows agencies, including the CIA, National Security Agency, and FBI, to collect communications of foreign targets overseas without a warrant, including when those targets communicate with Americans. Republican leaders tried to advance a long-term extension last week, but seven Republicans joined nearly all Democrats in blocking it.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on PBS NewsHour on June 9 that Pulte is unfit for the role. “Bill Pulte is deeply unqualified to serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence, and he’s deeply dangerous,” Jeffries said. “He’s got no national security experience, no military experience, and no law enforcement experience.”
Jeffries said Trump must withdraw the appointment before negotiations can continue and that Democrats want a “warrant or a warrant-like requirement” for judicial oversight before searches that could target Americans.
Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chair the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees, said in a weekend letter that they believed Democratic leaders would not support another short-term extension—the step Trump requested—and they urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prepare “for a potential significant gap in foreign intelligence collection.” Rubio replied that a lapse “would have dire impacts on our ability to keep the nation secure.”
Some Republicans also question Pulte. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said the top intelligence post should not be weaponized and should be filled by “professionals,” while Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Pulte “has no national security background.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) met with Trump on June 9 and 10 to discuss the program. Johnson said after Tuesday’s meeting that the House had done its part and that the Senate must act. “We must get FISA reauthorized,” he said in an email to The Epoch Times. “FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is the number one national security intelligence tool that we have.”
He said the House passed its reauthorization on April 29 with what he called reforms “to tighten it up and make sure that it works well and as designed,” and that the bill has since been awaiting Senate action.
“They had been working on a bicameral bipartisan solution to get this done. And that was working well until just a few days ago when the Democrats decided once again, like they decided not to fund border and immigration enforcement, they decided now they don’t want to reauthorize FISA because the president announced an interim appointment,” Johnson said. “You cannot play politics with the security of the American people.”
He said he was “praying that they come to their senses and that the Senate can work this out.”
After returning from the White House on Wednesday, Johnson described Trump’s request for a short-term extension as a “good faith gesture” to Democrats and urged them to accept it before Friday’s deadline. He said Pulte would serve only temporarily in what he called a “renovation” role to help reform and downsize the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, not in a long-term intelligence capacity.
Thune’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times on Wednesday.
The intelligence community credits Section 702 with helping prevent a planned 2024 attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna and enabling the seizure of chemicals from China intended to produce millions of fentanyl pills, according to a CIA fact sheet published in March.
A Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board report found nearly two-thirds of the President’s Daily Brief contained Section 702 information in 2025.
The program’s authority expires at the end of the day on Friday.