FISA Expires for First Time After Lawmakers Block Trump's Spy Chief Pick

For the first time in decades, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will expire on Friday after the House voted 218-198 against renewal—with 19 Republicans defecting—because lawmakers refused to confirm a Trump loyalist with zero intelligence experience as the nation's top spy overseer.

Bill Pulte: The Nomination That Killed FISA Reauthorization

President Trump appointed Bill Pulte—currently head of a federal housing agency—as acting Director of National Intelligence, a cabinet-level post overseeing the CIA, NSA, and a dozen other agencies. Pulte has no intelligence or national security background. Democrats warned that putting him in charge posed a greater risk to national security than letting FISA lapse, per The Washington Post. The White House pulled Pulte's nomination on Thursday and replaced him with Jay Clayton, former SEC chair and current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York—but by then, most lawmakers had already left D.C. for a week-long recess, killing any last-minute deal.

What Actually Changes (and What Doesn't)

The law itself expires Friday, but the surveillance programs authorized under FISA were already certified by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in March. That certification lets the NSA continue tapping undersea fiber cables and collecting data from Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft under PRISM until March 2027. What may stop: phone companies rolling over call detail records without a clear legal mandate, as Reuters notes. And the government still has Executive Order 12333, which grants near-unfettered surveillance powers globally.

The Real Risk: Secret Interpretations Keep Running

Sen. Ron Wyden, read into classified matters, warned that multiple administrations have relied on a secret interpretation of Section 702 that directly violates Americans' constitutional privacy rights—and that most lawmakers don't even know it exists. So even with the clock ticking, the surveillance state doesn't stop. It just loses one legislative cover story.

What this lapse really proves: a politically toxic nominee, not policy disagreement, is what finally broke a bipartisan surveillance stalemate. Expect the June 23 vote to be less about privacy reforms and more about whether Clayton can soothe enough Republicans to re-up the law before the court orders expire next March.

Source: US spy law to expire for first time after lawmakers reject Trump's controversial pick to lead spy agencies
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