Mark Warner Faces Pressure Over FISA Reauthorization After Trump Appoints Bill Pulte

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) is facing pressure over his handling of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reauthorization after President Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence.

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Common Dreams

The debate centers on whether Congress will pass FISA as-is or implement new warrant requirements to restrict how American citizens’ data can be accessed, as the deadline for FISA reauthorization approaches.

Common Dreams

Demand Progress executive director Sean Vitka said, “Sen. Warner’s opposition to Bill Pulte masks the fact that he is still the Democrats’ chief advocate for handing over unchecked spying powers to the Trump administration,” linking Warner’s stance to broader surveillance powers.

Vitka added, “If Trump pulls Pulte, he can easily appoint another eager goon to fill the slot,” arguing that focusing on personnel rather than the law leaves room for future abuses.

Demand Progress warned on Thursday that Warner is attacking civil liberties by collaborating with Republicans and the Trump administration to renew warrantless spying powers while sounding alarm over Pulte’s appointment.

Demand Progress also said Warner is pressing Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to use his influence to persuade Trump to reconsider appointing Pulte, who is currently director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, warned Wednesday that the Section 702 extension supported by Trump, his Republican allies in Congress, and Warner “doesn’t just fail to curb warrantless domestic spying, it actually expands the government's ability to use 702 against Americans.”

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner told NPR that Pulte has “no experience in the military, no experience in Congress, no experience in the intel community or law enforcement” and was chosen because he is “100% loyal to doing anything and everything President Trump demands.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation said Congress faces a deadline of Friday, June 12 to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, describing it as a “warrantless mass spying power” with “loopholes, and compliance issues.”

“Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) is facing intense pressure from both sides of the aisle over his handling of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reauthorization following the controversial appointment of Bill Pulte”

Tampa Free Press

EFF said Section 702 allows the National Security Agency to collect communications from targets overseas, including communications with Americans in the U.S., and store them in massive databases that the NSA then allows other agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to access.

EFF argued that under current practice, the FBI can query and even read the U.S. side of that communication without a warrant, and that victims “won’t even know and have very few ways of finding out that their communications have been surveilled.”

EFF also said the 2004 law creating the position of DNI requires those who hold it to have “extensive national security expertise,” and it described Pulte as lacking intelligence, military, or congressional experience while warning that as acting DNI he would have access to “massive amounts of information about Americans” under Section 702.