Senate blocks surveillance bill in dispute over Trump’s intelligence pick

Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has been named director of national intelligence despite a lack of relevant experience. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters View image in fullscreen Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has been named director of national intelligence despite a lack of relevant experience. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters Senate blocks surveillance bill in dispute over Trump’s intelligence pick Seven Republican senators joined Democrats to block Fisa extension amid disquiet over nomination of Bill Pulte US politics live – latest updates Seven Republican senators joined Democrats early on Friday to block the extension of a powerful government surveillance program, a rebuke to Donald Trump for choosing an inexperienced ally as the country’s top intelligence official. The renewal had been in question amid bipartisan concern over the US president’s appointment of Bill Pulte, a major Republican donor and heir to a home construction fortune, to serve as acting director of national intelligence . Pulte, who has no intelligence experience, was tapped controversially earlier this week by Trump days after Tulsi Gabbard announced her exit from the role. The Senate majority leader, John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said following the 47-52 vote that the chamber “will take another run at it” next week, but expressed little confidence the measure would pass. Democrats, he said, had taken a “terribly irresponsible position” by opposing the extension to section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa). The program permits US intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign targets operating outside the country without a warrant. ‘Americans will be less safe’: alarm as Trump picks loyalist as intelligence chief Read more Critics say that a wide array of domestic communications can be also be swept up without a warrant ever being sought because they may pass through US servers or involve US contacts. The program is set to expire next week, and Friday morning’s procedural measure, if it had passed, would have set up a final Senate vote on the extension before a 12 June congressional deadline. “The naming of Pulte to that position, although the timing arguably wasn’t the best, I still don’t think it ought to derail something that’s this important,” Thune said. He did not mention the Republican senators who crossed the aisle to join Democrats to vote against the Fisa extension pathway. It mirrored bitter infighting in Republican ranks in the House of Representatives last month, before Pulte’s appointment, over the warrantless spying program. An 18-month extension to section 702 was defeated 197-228 after 20 Republican representatives rebelled , and the chamber eventually settled on a 45-day “negotiation” period . Republican discontent in the Senate, meanwhile, centered on Trump’s advancement of Pulte, who leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and has us