A key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) is due to expire on Friday night amid a backlash to Trump’s announcement that Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a major Republican donor, would be acting DNI.
While Trump has moved to contain the furor – announcing his nomination of another top official, Jay Carney, to take the role on a permanent basis – US Congress has so far failed to extend section 702 of Fisa in time for Friday’s deadline.
While the Pulte row brought Fisa back in the spotlight, the program’s balance of civil liberties and national security has been the subject of fraught debate in recent months, and years.
“If Bill Pulte had never become part of the conversation, many of the underlying concerns about section 702 – if not all of them – would still exist,” said Jason Pye, vice-president of the Due Process Institute, a bipartisan nonprofit focused largely on criminal justice. “These debates didn’t start in this Congress, and they didn’t start with this administration.”
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