{"id":235,"date":"2026-06-18T05:10:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newhomeamerica.com\/?p=235"},"modified":"2026-06-18T05:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:10:20","slug":"senate-democrats-arent-happy-about-trumps-spy-law-ultimatum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newhomeamerica.com\/?p=235","title":{"rendered":"Senate Democrats Aren\u2019t Happy About Trump\u2019s Spy Law Ultimatum"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Before President Donald<\/span> Trump threw his latest hand grenade into congressional negotiations over a key domestic spying law, two factions of Senate Democrats seemed to believe they were on the verge of a breakthrough.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s Spaghetti-Against-the-Wall Indictment Against ICE Protesters \u2014 and How to Fight It<\/a><\/p>\n

Privacy advocates thought they had their best chance in years of passing reforms, including a warrant requirement for searching American communications collected abroad.<\/p>\n

Centrists allied with U.S. intelligence agencies, meanwhile, thought they were close to renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act with only minor tweaks.<\/p>\n

Then Trump, who had once already thrown the renewal process into chaos, announced on Wednesday that he wouldn\u2019t sign it unless Congress passed an unrelated voter suppression bill.<\/p>\n

Claiming that Democrats were poised to walk away from a spy law compromise, Trump said that \u201cto add a slight bit of intrigue but, for the Good of the Nation, and the People of our Country, I will not approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s surprise outburst on Truth Social on Wednesday scrapped the confirmation hearing set later in the day for Jay Clayton, a federal prosecutor in New York, to serve as the permanent director of national intelligence. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., had said that he hoped to quickly confirm Clayton.<\/p>\n

Clayton\u2019s impending confirmation had appeared to solve a problem \u2014 at least for some Democrats \u2014 that Trump created by tapping lapdog housing chief, Bill Pulte, as the Cabinet-level intelligence chief. It might also have opened a route for Congress to renew Section 702, the surveillance law that allows federal agents to conduct \u201cbackdoor,\u201d warrantless searches of Americans\u2019 communications collected abroad.<\/p>\n

In a joint press conference on Wednesday, top Senate Democrats revealed the cracks in their coalition over next steps on FISA.<\/p>\n

A key reformer, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he still hopes to pursue adding a warrant requirement to Section 702, while a centrist aligned with the intelligence agencies, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., expressed disappointment that the easiest route to renewal without major changes had been foreclosed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has become a complete debacle, and now it\u2019s up to the White House to figure out a path forward here,\u201d said Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a member of the intelligence committee. \u201cWe had a path forward, as of yesterday, and today we don\u2019t, and that\u2019s because of this president and his advisers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., remained cagey about what version of the law he would like to see ultimately passed. But in comments at the joint press conference, he sought to portray Democrats as the more responsible party when it came to Section 702.<\/p>\n

Read more How Did the Feds Get Into Anti-ICE Activists\u2019 Signal Messages?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s on our Republican colleagues to work with us to find A) a capable director, not someone who is a menace, and second, then to work with us on renewing FISA. It is up to them,\u201d Schumer said at the press conference. He said he was deeply concerned about Trump\u2019s appointment of Pulte, who appears likely to step into the office on Friday.<\/p>\n

Republicans \u201chave got to have the courage to buck the president, who clearly doesn\u2019t want a DNI director and doesn\u2019t want FISA renewed,\u201d Schumer said. \u201cAll he wants is Pulte.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, claimed Sunday that Section 702 renewal was on a \u201cglide path\u201d before Pulte\u2019s nomination. He also praised Clayton\u2019s selection, while reserving the right to ask about Clayton\u2019s views on election integrity.<\/p>\n

Reformers said Thursday, however, that Section 702\u2019s renewal was never as assured as Warner and Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., have suggested in public comments.<\/p>\n

Majorities of both Republicans and Democrats voted in recent weeks against advancing the law\u2019s renewal in versions of the bill that do not include a warrant requirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want that to be the narrative, because they don\u2019t want to have to deal with people who want things like warrants,\u201d said Kia Hamadanchy, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. \u201cAt no point have they actually demonstrated that they have a deal that one, has 60 votes in the Senate, and two, has any chance of going anywhere in the House.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wyden expressed alarm about Trump\u2019s actions at the joint Senate Democrat press conference. Wyden said that he always wanted to reform the law \u2014 not allow it to expire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is now even clearer than before that the only path to 60 votes in the United States Senate on intelligence is real reform, actual black-letter law, that addresses these issues,\u201d Wyden said.<\/p>\n

Privacy advocates argue that the way out of the congressional logjam is to allow members of Congress to vote on whether to add a warrant requirement, something that Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson have not been willing to allow so far. Even then, however, Trump could veto whatever version of the law emerges from that process.<\/p>\n

Read more Are Jeffries and Schumer Getting Ready to Greenlight Domestic Spy Power for Trump?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before Trump paused Jay Clayton\u2019s nomination, Senate Democrats thought they were on a \u201cglide path\u201d to renewing FISA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSenate Democrats Aren\u2019t Happy About Trump\u2019s Spy Law Ultimatum - New Home America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newhomeamerica.com\/?p=235\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senate Democrats Aren\u2019t Happy About Trump\u2019s Spy Law Ultimatum - New Home America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Before Trump paused Jay Clayton\u2019s nomination, Senate Democrats thought they were on a \u201cglide path\u201d to renewing FISA.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/newhomeamerica.com\/?p=235\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"New Home America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-18T05:10:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newhomeamerica.com\\\/?p=235#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newhomeamerica.com\\\/?p=235\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newhomeamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3b2fb75bd3a94256636ac75160bfd623\"},\"headline\":\"Senate Democrats Aren\u2019t Happy About Trump\u2019s Spy Law Ultimatum\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-18T05:10:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newhomeamerica.com\\\/?p=235\"},\"wordCount\":869,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newhomeamerica.com\\\/?p=235#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newhomeamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/d8c00f5a5a18de28f529979c9780832b.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/newhomeamerica.com\\\/?p=235#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newhomeamerica.com\\\/?p=235\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/newhomeamerica.com\\\/?p=235\",\"name\":\"Senate Democrats Aren\u2019t Happy About Trump\u2019s Spy Law Ultimatum - 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