June 8, 2026

Good Monday evening. In this edition: Congress grapples with FISA deadline complicated by Pulte's appointment.

• Plus, Middle East, Blanche and H-1B visas.

FISA

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Democrats will oppose an extension of a key spy power so long as Bill Pulte is acting director of national intelligence, raising the stakes ahead of Friday's deadline to reauthorize the controversial program.

• "Reversing the Bill Pulte appointment is a starting point, not an ending point," the Democratic leader told reporters, calling him a "political hack" and "malignant clown."

Mr. Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who has no experience in national security or intelligence matters, was tapped by President Trump last week to replace Tulsi Gabbard as the head of the nation's 18 intelligence agencies, beginning in July.

• The appointment — which does not require Senate confirmation unless the president wants to nominate him full time — was met with deep skepticism on Capitol Hill and is threatening to derail the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Section 702, which the intelligence community views as critical to its work, allows the government to monitor the communications of foreign targets abroad without a warrant.

• But lawmakers in both parties have raised concerns about Americans' data being incidentally swept up as part of the program, and the appointment of Mr. Pulte has only made renewal efforts more difficult.

After several short-term stopgap measures, lawmakers unveiled a bipartisan bill last week to reauthorize the program for three years. But due to opposition from privacy-minded conservatives, Democratic votes will be required to move the bill in both chambers.

• "We can't pass this on the floor without Democrats," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters.
  
  

• Illustrating that point, the Senate on Friday failed to advance the three-year reauthorization bill after almost every Democrat joined seven Republicans in opposition.

Sen. Thune said the chamber will "take another run at it" this week and called Democrats' opposition a "terribly irresponsible position."

• "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," the majority leader said Friday.

President Trump told reporters last week that Mr. Pulte's appointment would be temporary, but that hasn't done enough to reassure Democrats, who have criticized his qualifications as well as history of targeting the president's political adversaries while running FHFA.

• Asked whether there was any scenario in which Democrats would support FISA reauthorization with Mr. Pulte at the helm, Rep. Jeffries flatly said "no."

It's unclear how lawmakers will proceed but Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) expressed confidence that both chambers will pass the FISA extension ahead of the Friday deadline.

• "The president has prerogative. He's explained that Mr. Pulte is a temporary placeholder," he told reporters. "We're going to pass FISA this week because it would go dark and it would be a calamitous situation for the country."

Watch Rep. Jeffries' remarks.

In other news…

• Israel and Iran agreed to stop trading strikes after a weekend of missile attacks that jeopardized the two-month ceasefire and threatened to reignite a full-blown war in the Middle East. Iran launched missiles at Israel on Sunday for the first time since April in retaliation for an Israeli bombing campaign targeting Hezbollah positions near the Lebanese capital of Beirut. Israel then launched two waves of airstrikes across Iran, including against the country's largest petrochemical complex, prompting more Iranian attacks on central Israel. President Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call to hold off on further attacks, and he agreed. Iran also agreed to suspend strikes, though both sides said they remain ready to resume fighting.
  
  

• Todd Blanche was formally nominated by President Trump to be attorney general, setting up what is expected to be a contentious confirmation fight. Mr. Blanche, the president's former defense lawyer, was elevated to lead the Justice Department in an acting capacity in April after Pam Bondi was fired. Democrats are expected to oppose his nomination en masse, meaning he can afford to lose no more than three Republican votes on the Senate floor. Mr. Blanche drew the ire of a handful of GOP senators with his announcement of a $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund that was widely derided on Capitol Hill. The announcement led to a GOP revolt, delaying passage of Republicans' reconciliation bill and ultimately prompting the acting AG to announce that the plan had been permanently scrapped.
  
  

• A federal judge struck down the Trump administration's policy of imposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers, ruling that it constituted an unlawful tax that Congress never authorized. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin ruled in favor of 20 Democratic attorneys general who challenged the policy announced last September. "The substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called," the judge wrote in a 42-page decision. The Homeland Security Department blasted the ruling as "blatant judicial activism" and said the administration "remains committed to safeguarding opportunities for American workers and maintaining the integrity of employment-based visa programs." The H-1B program was created by Congress in 1990 and allows U.S.-based companies to temporarily hire foreign workers in specialty fields for up to six years.

For your radar…

• The House plans to vote Tuesday on Republicans' reconciliation bill funding ICE and Border Patrol. The Senate approved the bill last Friday by a vote of 52–47. Watch LIVE on C-SPAN starting at 10am ET.
  
  

• NASA on Tuesday announces the crew for the Artemis III mission, which will conduct a test of human lunar landing systems before sending astronauts to the moon in later missions. Watch LIVE on C-SPAN3 at 11am ET.

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