Senator Shelley Moore Capito supports extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, regularly called FISA, which authorizes the warrantless surveillance of foreign targets located outside the United States.
But Capito, in a call with West Virginia reporters, acknowledged that’s been intertwined with President Trump’s controversial selection of Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte to serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence.
Pulte is being considered following the departure of Tulsi Gabbard, the prior director of National Intelligence. Democrats and some Republicans have highlighted that Pulte has no intelligence or national security experience.
Pulte has used his current position to launch mortgage fraud investigations of people Trump considers political adversaries, including Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, and Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board.
Democrats have refused to back an extension of Section 702 unless Trump reverses his decision to name Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence.
“On the Pulte nomination, this is problematic. It’s a temporary — it’s not a nomination that has to go through the Senate. The president wanted to put him in there temporarily,” Capito, R-W.Va., said in response to a MetroNews question.
“It’s caused a lot of angst from some folks who are willing to disrupt our foreign intelligence surveillance opportunities as we’re on the cusp of bringing in people from all over the world for the World Cup.”
A couple of hours after Capito made her remarks, Trump announced he would nominate Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be the director of national intelligence on a long-term basis. Clayton served as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term.
“I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible,” Trump wrote on social media.
Nevertheless, FISA was up against an expiration deadline.
The House of Representatives today failed to pass an extension through July 2. The vote was 198-218. West Virginia’s representatives, Carol Miller and Riley Moore voted in favor off the measure.
“I’m very disappointed that the House would not pass the FISA bill,” Capito said during the news conference with West Virginia reporters.
Before Trump picked Pulte, who has no national security experience, Republican lawmakers were close to gathering a bipartisan coalition for a longer-term extension.
If Congress doesn’t act, Section 702 will lapse Friday.
“They’re willing to let this lapse,” Capito said, “and let’s think about what it does. It only surveils foreign citizens on foreign soil, no American citizens at all and nobody on American soil. So this is something that we’ve used to disrupt terrorist attacks, and apparently this temporary nomination has upended it.
“I think the president said yesterday he intends to nominate somebody permanently for this job that has natural national security experience. I would encourage him to do that sooner than later.”
Several Republican senators, including John Cornyn of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have said Pulte is not qualified to serve as the president’s principal adviser on national security and intelligence matters.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has said a long term nominee is on the way while also criticizing Democrats for linking Pulte and FISA.
“I think that getting some certainty and closure on that issue, about who that might be, will certainly play an important role in unlocking the support that we need to get FISA done,” Thune told national reporters.
Failure to extend the legislation creates significant legislative uncertainty, but intelligence operations would not immediately go dark.
Capito, speaking on MetroNews Midday earlier this week, said the potential of a lapse is still a risk. In the longer term, Capito supports a three-year reauthorization of FISA and sees it as an indispensable resource for the intelligence gathering.
“These are really important intelligence tools that we need in a very dangerous world, and I’ve always voted to move forward with this,” she said.
On another controversial appointment, Capito says she supports the Trump’s choice of Todd Blanche to be U.S. attorney general.
A former federal prosecutor, Blanche earlier served as Trump’s lead defense attorney during his criminal trials and was confirmed as deputy attorney general in March 2025. He is currently awaiting full Senate confirmation.
“The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, I have met him, gotten to know him over the course of the last several months since he was the number two at Justice, and I think he is doing a great job,” Capito said. “And I plan to vote for him.”