President Donald Trump is complicating the renewal of a key government spying program with his insistence that Congress pair any extension with passage of the SAVE America Act, his signature election bill.
Over the weekend, the president urged Congress to pass the voter identification bill alongside an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, warning he would oppose any extension that excludes it. Trump’s demand that the two pieces of legislation be packaged together throws a new wrench into already complicated negotiations.
Congress failed to pass a deal to extend Section 702 of FISA ahead of a Friday deadline after Democrats withheld their support for a bipartisan deal over Trump’s appointment of top housing official Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence.
Trump’s nomination of U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to be the permanent DNI, however, sparked fresh optimism that there may be a path forward to pass a reauthorization of the key spy tool, as Democrats largely welcomed Clayton’s nomination.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, is set to meet with Clayton on Tuesday, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to the Washington Examiner. The committee’s nomination hearing for Clayton is scheduled for Wednesday.
But Trump’s pressing to attach the voter identification law to a patch of the surveillance tool threatens to derail talks once more.
“President Trump says he wants to renew Section 702,” Warner said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “But after pushing an appointee for acting DNI who has generated deep concerns on both sides of the aisle and now demanding that Congress tack the unrelated SAVE Act onto FISA reauthorization, it’s fair to ask: does the president actually want this bill to pass?”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has been under increased pressure from Trump and his base to eliminate the 60-vote filibuster to pass the party’s agenda, including the SAVE America Act, but the majority leader has maintained that the votes “aren’t there” even if the Senate moved to do so.
Thune told reporters on Monday that he was “not sure” whether Trump could be convinced to de-couple the two priorities, but urged him to reconsider his demand.
“I certainly would hope that if we can get FISA off the floor that he would sign it,” Thune said. “I mean, I just think it’s that important.”
He added that he spoke with Trump about FISA, but on Friday — before his weekend posts on Truth Social.
The Senate rejected an effort to include the SAVE America Act in a party-line immigration funding bill earlier this month, with four Senate Republicans, Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Thom Tillis (R-NC), opposing.
A Senate Republican aide said the Senate’s voting record on the voter ID bill “speaks for itself.”
CONGRESS MISSES DEADLINE TO PASS EXTENSION OF KEY SPY PROGRAM
“Democrats made a conscious decision to shut down America’s most important terrorist-fighting tool, and it’s incumbent upon them to return to and pass the bipartisan, bicameral deal they walked away from,” said another Senate GOP aide. “That’s the quickest way to turn this back on.”