I spent four decades in national security and served as Director of National Intelligence under President Obama. In that role, I was responsible for overseeing the entire United States intelligence community – sixteen agencies, thousands of professionals, and the collection programs that keep this country safe.
So, when I tell you that what happened last Thursday concerns me, I hope you will take it seriously.
Thursday at midnight, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act expired, the first lapse in the program’s history. Section 702 is the legal authority that allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect communications against foreign targets while protecting the rights of Americans and American communications companies. It is woven into roughly a quarter of all National Security Agency intelligence reporting and more than half of the President’s Daily Brief. It helped stop a plot to bomb the New York City subway in 2009. It contributed to the operation that killed al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri in 2022. The legal authority behind all of it has lapsed. The intelligence community will still attempt to collect threat communications to protect Americans against foreign attacks, but instead of operating under the clear legal framework provided by former Congresses in Section 702, it will have to make its own judgments on individual cases, risking the loss of potential intelligence or encroachment on the right to privacy of American citizens.
On Thursday, the House voted on a three-week extension to buy time until July 2. The measure failed, 198 to 218, well short of the two-thirds required. Nineteen Republicans voted no. Most Democrats did too, though seven broke with their caucus to keep the program running: Henry Cuellar, Don Davis, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Jared Golden, Vicente Gonzalez, Josh Gottheimer, and Susie Lee.
The reason for the Democratic opposition was no secret. Earlier this month, President Trump named Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to serve as acting Director of National Intelligence. Mr. Pulte has no background in national security, law enforcement, or the military, but under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act he could serve for up to 210 days without Senate confirmation. Democrats said they would not extend the government’s most significant surveillance authority while a political appointee with no intelligence experience oversaw it.
A few hours after the vote failed on Thursday, President Trump announced he will nominate Jay Clayton, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as the permanent Director of National Intelligence.
But naming a future nominee does not fix today’s problem. Sen. Chuck Schumer was blunter: Regardless of what happens with Clayton, “Pulte’s gotta go.”
I want to speak to the experience question directly, because I have sat in the chair both men are now fighting over. Every Director of National Intelligence since the office was created in 2005 has arrived with significant military, intelligence, or national security oversight experience.
Both things can be true. The country needs a Director of National Intelligence confirmed by the Senate and credible to both parties, and it needed Section 702 to stay in force without a gap, especially as the World Cup kicks off and roughly five million visitors travel to America. Tying the two together and letting the authority lapse anyway just leaves the country exposed while members of Congress on both ends explain to their bases why the other side is to blame. Section 702 is a case of Congress setting the rules, as they should, for the operations of the intelligence community, balancing security and the rights of Americans, rather than leaving it to the Executive Branch. Yet many members of Congress consider politics more important than carrying out their basic responsibilities of setting the rules for American national security.
When Congress returns on June 23, it has two jobs, not one: Confirm a Director of National Intelligence on the merits, with the bipartisan support this office has always required, and reauthorize Section 702 immediately.
Neither should wait for the other.
