America's spy powers are in deep trouble

• Section 702 feeds more than half of the president's daily briefing and has been credited with helping thwart terror plots and other national-security threats.
• It allows the attorney general and director of national intelligence to compel electronic service providers to provide communications involving foreign intelligence targets overseas.

The intrigue: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court re-certified Section 702 procedures through 2027 earlier this year.

• But if Congress fails to renew the underlying statutory authority, intelligence agencies and telecommunications companies will face immediate legal uncertainty over what collection activities may continue.
• The result could be a chaotic and largely untested period for one of the intelligence community's most heavily used authorities.

Zoom in: Democrats are refusing to back an extension of Section 702 unless Trump reverses his decision to name Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence.

• Trump wants Pulte — who lacks any national security experience — "to execute the immediate and needed downsizing" of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, he posted Wednesday on Truth Social.
• "Bill Pulte cannot serve a minute as acting director of national intelligence, and until that elevation is abandoned, there's nothing really to talk about," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters Wednesday.
• "Pulte is just one of the most vicious, incapable, non-fact-based people I've ever seen in the government," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told Punchbowl News.

Between the lines: Before Trump picked Pulte, GOP lawmakers appeared close to assembling a bipartisan coalition for a longer-term 702 extension.

• Negotiations had been difficult, with lawmakers struggling for months to bridge disagreements over surveillance reforms.

What they're saying: "It'd be a very dangerous time to allow us to not have that important national security tool," House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday. "We have a lot of big events going on around the country right now. We have the FIFA World Cup, we have the American 250 events, Freedom 250 events."

• "I'm the only one in this institution that's actually used 702 to save lives. It is critical to the president's daily brief. It's the single most important 9/11 commission recommendation that we have, and it's at risk of going dark due to foolishness," Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) told Axios.

• "I don't agree with [Pulte's] nomination, and I don't agree with them voting against FISA because of it," Fitzpatrick added.

What's next: The House will take up a short-term extension on Thursday morning to keep the program going through July 2.

• The vote, which will require two-thirds support, is expected to fall short.

The bottom line: Not every Democrat is comfortable allowing the authority to expire, but Johnson is nowhere close to the necessary two-thirds majority and some Republicans aren't signaling support for a short-term extension.

• "I'm not going to play politics with our national security, that's...you know, that's for Donald Trump to do," Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, told Axios. "I encourage my colleagues to do the same."
• Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), who has been pushing for reforms to the program, told Axios he's considering voting against a short-term extension. "They ask guys like us, 'Well, could you please give us a little more time to get this done?' You grow tired of that crap after a while."