Two U.S. lawmakers with national security expertise warned on Sunday that President Donald Trump’s choice of Bill Pulte to be his chief intelligence adviser could stand in the way of renewing an expiring foreign surveillance law.
The Senate and House of Representatives face a Friday deadline for renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows US intelligence agencies to monitor emails and other communications of foreigners located outside the US without individual judicial warrants.
Trump named Pulte, who has no experience in the security field, to be acting director of national intelligence, replacing Tulsi Gabbard who resigned effective June 30.
Pulte would also retain his position as the head of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency. His temporary appointment as director of national intelligence has outraged Democratic and Republican members of Congress because of his lack of experience.
Democrats also argue Pulte has demonstrated a willingness to use his housing finance position to attack Trump’s perceived enemies.
The appointment was like throwing a “live hand grenade” into the congressional debate days before FISA is set to expire, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told ABC’s “This Week” programme.
