Trump says no government surveillance program renewal without Mike Lee's election bill

SALT LAKE CITY — President Donald Trump is threatening to vote against reauthorizing a key government surveillance program unless Republicans attach an election reform bill to the final package — a demand that is certain to be dead on arrival in the Senate.

In a post on Truth Social over the weekend, Trump railed against Democrats for tanking a bipartisan deal to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a program that allows intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign targets located outside the United States. Democrats opposed the deal after Trump tapped Bill Pulte as the acting director of national intelligence — prompting the president to nominate Jay Clayton as the official replacement, pending confirmation from the Senate, to get Democrats back on board.

But in his weekend post, Trump appeared to double down on Pulte as acting director of national intelligence — and said he was against renewing FISA anyway if it didn't include Utah Sen. Mike Lee's SAVE America Act.

The post comes in contrast to Trump just last week urging Republicans to pass a temporary extension before the June 12 deadline.

The likelihood of Republicans attaching the election reform bill to the package is slim. Trump has previously called on GOP senators to include the SAVE America Act in other must-pass legislation, but those demands have never been met, as the election reform bill lacks the support needed to overcome the Senate filibuster.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., appeared to brush off the idea of attaching the SAVE America Act to the FISA reauthorization, noting he hopes to expedite the Section 702 renewal as soon as this week.

"I think the president wants to add SAVE America to pretty much everything, but that, you know, obviously, is not realistic to get the FISA bill done," Thune said on Monday. "And we want to get the FISA bill done."

Thune later added: "I certainly would hope that if we could get FISA off the floor, (Trump) would sign it. I mean, I just think it's that important."

Lee has not appeared to weigh in on whether the SAVE America Act should be attached to FISA. The Utah senator has instead amplified calls to bring the election reform package back to the Senate floor for consideration.

Related topics