US House rejects extension of key spy powers

WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives on Thursday rejected a short-term extension of a major warrantless surveillance programme, leaving one of Washington’s most powerful intelligence tools on course to expire within hours.

The failed vote on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act came after Democrats – and some Republicans – baulked at renewing the authority amid a wider fight over President Donald Trump’s plan to install close ally Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence.

The programme allows US intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign targets overseas without a warrant, and officials say it is central to counterterrorism and other national security work.

Supporters warn that a lapse would plunge intelligence agencies and telecommunications companies into legal uncertainty, potentially depriving the government of a tool credited with helping thwart terror plots and supplying a large share of the president’s daily intelligence briefing.

But the vote collapsed amid anger over Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who has no background in national security and has been accused by Democrats of using government databases to seek damaging information on Trump’s political enemies.

Although the statute expires at midnight on Friday going into Saturday, surveillance programmes operate under year-long certifications approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court – meaning existing surveillance authorisations could theoretically continue through March 2027.

Trump had urged lawmakers to pass a stopgap extension until July 2, saying it would give the White House time to select and confirm a permanent intelligence chief.

But Democrats said they would not back even a temporary renewal without reforms to protect Americans’ privacy and a retreat from Pulte’s elevation.

House Democratic leaders said in a statement released before the vote that they could not support reauthorisation “without significant reforms to protect both national security and the constitutional privacy rights of Americans”.

The leaders also said Pulte’s appointment would defy a legal requirement that the intelligence director have “extensive” national security experience.

The defeat leaves Congress with little time to prevent the first-ever lapse of Section 702, with House lawmakers preparing to leave Washington until June 23 and the Senate also struggling to find a path forward after blocking FISA renewal last week.

Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has suggested he could support a short-term extension if Trump instead made Aaron Lukas, the current number two official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the acting director.

But Trump has so far doubled down on Pulte, deepening a standoff that has scrambled what had looked like a bipartisan path to renewing the spy power.