The U.S. Senate failed to advance a key intelligence tool Friday morning, likely leading to its lapse. Seven conservative Republicans joined all but one Democrat to block the measure in a 47-52 vote. Senators must now go back to the drawing board to find a way to advance the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), for which authorization expires on Friday.

The failed vote comes after a series of bipartisan agreements to keep FISA running. Most recently, on April 30, both chambers of Congress voted to extend FISA authorization by six weeks, from April 30 to June 12. The Senate passed the measure by voice vote, suggesting the outcome was not controversial enough for anyone to demand a roll call. The House passed the measure on suspension, a fast-track mechanism requiring a two-thirds majority, and the bill succeeded on a broadly bipartisan basis (261-111).

The reason why FISA enjoys broad support even in the Democrats’ “maximum warfare” era is that the measure is critical to national security.

“Two-thirds of the president’s daily national security briefing comes from intel that is collected with this statute,” explained House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on “This Week on Capitol Hill.” “It is critical. It has prevented another 9/11 on our shores, and we cannot let it go dark.”

In a letter, Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) tipped off their former colleague, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that FISA’s continued operation is now in doubt. They called on Rubio to “plan for a potential significant gap in foreign intelligence collection.” That means the intelligence community should “identify all intelligence targets on which the United States may lose valuable intelligence information,” and “determine alternative lawful and constitutional intelligence-collection methods by which the United States could continue collecting intelligence on these individuals.”

Reasons for opposing the all-important measure vary by party. Many Democrats who had been supportive of the bill changed their position after President Trump appointed Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), as acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to replace outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard.

For instance, Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.), the Ranking Member on the Senate Intelligence Committee who worked to craft the bill, called the bill “strong,” but said Pulte’s selection was “complete irresponsibility” that changed the entire calculus.

During his tenure at the FHFA, Pulte distinguished himself by leveraging the backbench agency into a weapon used against President Trump’s opponents. Pulte investigated figures as disparate as New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook for mortgage fraud, ultimately recommending them for prosecution on middling evidence. Amid Trump’s dispute with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Pulte even called on Congress to investigate Powell for “his political bias” and “deceptive Senate testimony.”

Democrats connected Pulte to the FISA bill because his role as acting DNI would directly oversee the administration of FISA. “I can’t imagine a stupider thing to do, nine days away from the authority expiring,” declared Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.). “I cannot imagine a stupider thing to do than to put atop of the intelligence community somebody who has a known track record of weaponizing government against political opponents.”

“Giving this guy who will simply roll over or do whatever is — I think it’s a national-security threat. I think it is a choice that even my Republican friends agree is a disaster,” warned Warner. “Does anybody think it makes good sense to give him the keys to the 18 intelligence agencies?”

Warner is rightly reading at least some of his senatorial colleagues. According to Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), “Mr. Pulte may be qualified for some other job, but this is a job that requires special experience and background, and actually it’s written in the statute.” Cornyn was not one of the seven Republican senators to block the FISA bill. But, after a hard-fought primary loss in which Trump endorsed his rival at the last moment, Cornyn also feels no need to pretend, for Trump’s sake, that unqualified appointees are qualified.

In response to criticism of Pulte’s qualifications, President Trump stressed that the appointment was strictly temporary. “It’s an acting position, it’s not permanent, he’s not going to be permanent because, I don’t think he’d want to be permanent,” said Trump. “But he’s a very smart guy, and he may find out some things about the rigged elections, etc., etc. I think he’d like to do it. I think he wants to do it very much. Got a lot of energy. But he’ll be very good. Again, it’s not a permanent position. We’re looking at, we’re interviewing people right now. But it’s somebody just to take it over for a little while.”

Trump would presumably find it more concerning if an unqualified pilot or surgeon were to temporarily attend to him. The remark about “rigged elections, etc., etc.” suggests Trump’s true motive and hope.

Republicans, meanwhile, thought Democrats’ fixation on Pulte was simply a delaying tactic. “The naming of Pulte to that position — although the timing arguably wasn’t the best, I still don’t think it ought to derail something that’s this important,” pleaded Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).

Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), who does not have to find votes among Senate Democrats to pass a FISA, felt freer to speak bluntly on “Washington Watch.” “They’re throwing a temper tantrum,” he said.

However, the Republican senators who opposed FISA had a different set of reasons, and Self admitted that they had a point. These were Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah).

“The [seven] Republican senators that actually stopped it, I applaud,” he added, “because we need a bill that has a warrant in it, that we reexamine the electronic communications service provider … we stop these gag orders, when the government orders providers to give them data. Certainly, we need to stop buying Americans’ data from data brokers. … And, frankly, I want a permanent ban on the central bank digital currency.”

“So, there’s a whole myriad of issues now with the surveillance state,” Self said. “Let’s make it better. Let’s add some of these provisions to tear down the surveillance state.”

Republicans in Congress can point to a positive history of reform on FISA. “The last time we did it in 2024, Republicans — conservatives — worked very hard,” Johnson reflected. “We got 56 major reforms on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to ensure that the privacy and the protection of Americans is there. And we haven’t had errors since those reforms were made. So, they did the desired job.”

However, Johnson added, “the expiration date … is next week. And we must reauthorize FISA.”