Pulte Holds Back at ODNI as FISA Section 702 Lapses and Clayton Stalls

Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte, installed by President Donald Trump on June 19 with an explicit mandate to downsize the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, has so far executed a fraction of the staff reductions initially reported ^[1][2]. According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Pulte terminated 6 front-office personnel and returned approximately 45 career officers to their home agencies in his first days on the job ^[3]. The National Counterterrorism Center, which had been identified as a primary target for cuts and employs roughly 1,000 staff, was not affected ^[1][3]. Two sources told CBS News that no further firings are planned for now ^[3]. A senior Republican congressional aide told POLITICO that "Pulte has not cut any staff at NCTC and all indications are that there will be no further cuts or reorganizing of ODNI" [POLITICO].

The limited scope of the initial action stands against the backdrop of Trump's publicly stated directive. In a Truth Social post earlier this month, Trump said he had asked Pulte "to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies" ^[2][4]. As director of national intelligence, Pulte oversees 18 intelligence agencies. The appointment drew immediate objections from both parties. It is the first time since the agency was formed in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, that the office has been led by someone with no prior intelligence or national security experience who did not previously have a security clearance. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner introduced legislation that would bar a future president from installing an acting DNI who had not previously been confirmed by the Senate ^[2]. The top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence panels, Rep. Jim Himes and Sen. Warner, sent a joint letter to Pulte warning that large cuts would "follow on a substantial downsizing that has already occurred in 2025 and risk jeopardizing the mission of an organization explicitly created after 9/11." ^[3][4] The prior downsizing, carried out under former Director Tulsi Gabbard, had already reduced ODNI's headcount from roughly 2,000 to around 1,300.

The immediate and more consequential casualty of the Pulte appointment is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Section 702, enacted in 2008 as part of the FISA Amendments Act, authorizes the NSA to compel major U.S. internet and telecommunications providers to hand over communications of foreign nationals located outside the United States, without obtaining individual court orders for each target. The provision has been fully reauthorized by Congress three times since its creation. The government says that more than 60% of the president's daily intelligence briefing relies on information collected under the authority. The statute lapsed on June 12 after the House failed to pass a short-term extension, voting 198 to 218, with 19 Republicans joining nearly all Democrats in opposition ^[9][14]. It would be the first time Congress has allowed Section 702 to lapse since the law passed in 2008. Democrats made clear that Pulte's presence as acting DNI was the primary reason for their opposition. The elevation of Pulte turned Section 702 reauthorization into a deal-breaker for Democrats, who said they would not vote to reauthorize the program ahead of its expiration deadline.

The lapse does not immediately halt all collection. Intelligence collection under FISA's Section 702 is authorized annually by a federal court, and the law allows collection to continue for the duration of the court's authorization even if the statute lapses before the court's next approval, meaning electronic communications service providers remain legally required to turn over material to intelligence agencies. The program's operational continuity under existing FISA Court certifications gives Congress roughly nine months, until around March 2027, before those certifications themselves begin to expire and a harder legal question arises. A separate constitutional dimension complicates any reauthorization effort: in January 2025, a federal district court in United States v. Hasbajrami held that warrantless backdoor searches of Section 702 databases ordinarily violate the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement, and the case is now before the Second Circuit on appeal.

The path to reauthorization runs through the confirmation of Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan whom Trump nominated as permanent DNI after bipartisan backlash to Pulte's appointment ^[7][18]. Democrats had signaled willingness to restore Section 702 authority if Clayton were confirmed [POLITICO]. That resolution was set back on June 17, when Trump directed Clayton not to appear at his scheduled Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing, conditioning the process on unrelated legislative priorities ^[19][23]. Trump posted on Truth Social that the hearing would not proceed "until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney," referring to his pick to replace Clayton in the Southern District of New York. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton called the outcome "regrettable" and said the hearing was postponed, not withdrawn ^[19][23]. Clayton's nomination, which GOP senators were aiming to fast-track, had been widely regarded as a way to ease tension between the White House and Senate Republicans. Any bill to renew Section 702 needs 60 votes in the Senate, where Republicans control 53 seats, requiring Democratic cooperation that Pulte's continued presence makes structurally unlikely. The procedural and personnel impasse now sits squarely with the White House, leaving the intelligence community's primary warrantless collection authority in statutory limbo pending resolution of the DNI question.