A critical spy powers program is set to go dark Saturday after Congress failed to reauthorize the initiative, which is seen as essential to U.S. surveillance abroad.
The expected lapse comes after Democratic lawmakers refused to back a short-term extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act program on Thursday over concerns about President Donald Trump’s move to install Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as interim director of national intelligence. He has been criticized by both parties as a partisan with no intelligence background.
The move followed months of debate over FISA’s Section 702 surveillance program, which has long been controversial in both parties and requires some bipartisan support to reauthorize.. The National Security Agency says that intelligence derived from the program accounts for more than half of the president’s daily briefing and is integral to the country’s counterterrorism posture.