This week on the Hill: FISA negotiations at a standstill after Clayton hearing delayed

News This week on the Hill: FISA negotiations at a standstill after Clayton hearing delayed Comments: by Sudiksha Kochi - 06/22/26 8:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Sudiksha Kochi - 06/22/26 8:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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The fate of legislation to revive the government’s warrantless spying powers remains murky after President Trump last week called for a Senate Intelligence Committee nomination hearing for Jay Clayton, his pick to serve as director of national intelligence, to be postponed.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows the government to spy on foreigners abroad without a warrant, expired on June 12, after Democrats objected to Trump’s appointment of Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte as the acting director of national intelligence.

Republicans had viewed Clayton’s nomination as a potential off-ramp from the FISA impasse. Democrats said they would only consider a Section 702 renewal if Pulte was out of the intelligence job.

“I am not sure whether Jay Clayton has simply been postponed or withdrawn. I wonder whether Jay Clayton knows whether he has been postponed or withdrawn,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters last week.

Pulte, meanwhile, took over in his new role on Friday.

“It’s up to them,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, referring to Republicans. “This is Republican president, Republican House, Republican Senate, all screwing up with each other. They’ve got to come to an agreement, and they’ve got to have the courage to buck the president, who clearly doesn’t want a DNI director and doesn’t want FISA renewed.”

What you can expect:

FISA negotiations at a standstill: Senate Republicans are debating how to move forward on a Section 702 renewal after the Clayton hearing was postponed.
Housing bill moves through Congress: The Senate and the House will consider a housing bill.
House to take up appropriations bills: The House will take up two government funding bills for fiscal 2027.
Todd Blanche to meet with Thom Tillis: Sen. Thom Tillis(R-N.C.) said he will meet with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche over his nomination to be the next attorney general.

Section 702 renewal remains in flux

The abrupt cancellation of Clayton’s nomination hearing last week dealt a significant blow to Republicans, who had hoped to move quickly on a Section 702 renewal.

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said that Trump’s call “didn’t make a lot of sense.”

“One of the things may very well be, as I try to explain it in my own brain, sort of maybe a lack of trust or faith in [Senate Majority Leader] John Thune’s (R-S.D.) clear-eyed understanding of the sequence of things that have to happen. And in this case, the sequence being the nomination of Jay Clayton, the fast tracking of his confirmation to avoid Bill Pulte from even having a minute as the acting DNI [director of national intelligence], resulting then in Democrats going back to their roots, which would be to support FISA 702 reauthorization,” Cramer said, noting that most Democrats do support Section 702 renewal.

Aside from the Clayton hearing, Trump has also repeatedly said he won’t sign a Section 702 renewal unless the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act is attached to it. The SAVE America Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and the presentation of a photo ID to cast a ballot. Trump has framed the effort as part of a broader push on election security as the 2026 midterms ramp up.

But Democrats have fiercely opposed the GOP voting requirements measure. And some Democratic support will be needed to advance a Section 702 renewal in the upper chamber.

Thune told Punchbowl News last week that it would be “unrealistic” to get the SAVE America Act passed simply by attaching it to an extension of FISA authorities. He has previously fought back against calls to change the Senate rules to make it easier to pass the voter ID bill.

Asked if he’s concerned that Trump might veto the intelligence legislation if it doesn’t include the election reform bill, Thune told reporters, “I certainly would hope if we can get FISA off the floor, he would sign it.”

Senate and House to take up sweeping housing package

The Senate is gearing up to take a final vote on a bipartisan housing bill on Monday. The House is then expected to take up the bill later this week.

The bill, dubbed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, aims to approve incentives to build new homes, establish a program to convert abandoned buildings into housing developments and authorize new grants to modernize existing homes, among other priorities.

The version ultimately agreed to by the House and Senate includes language to limit institutional investors’ ability to buy up single-family homes, which House Republicans had fought to include.

The bill comes as both parties are seeking to make affordability a central message to voters amid a high-stakes 2026 midterm election cycle.

“2026 is the Year of Affordability, and the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act gives Congress a chance to deliver a major win for families across the country,” said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), chair of the Senate Banking Committee, in a news release. “This bill is the result of years of work to lower costs, expand housing supply, cut red tape, protect taxpayers, and help more Americans achieve the dream of homeownership.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), ranking member of the committee, said in a statement the legislation “would represent the biggest housing bill in more than 30 years.”

“Let’s get it done,” she added.

House to take up more fiscal 2027 appropriations bills

The House Rules Committee will meet Tuesday to tee up floor consideration of two appropriations bills — one funding the Department of State, national security and other related programs, and another funding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civil works projects, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Energy and several independent agencies.

The House already passed two fiscal 2027 appropriations bills, marking a key milestone for GOP leaders as they juggle a crowded legislative agenda.

One is a military construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill that would fund veterans’ benefits and invest more than $2 billion in infrastructure improvements for the Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities and four cemeteries, along with a number of other priorities.

Another is an agriculture, rural development, Food and Drug Administration and related agencies bill that would deliver $1.16 billion to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and improve the “tracking system of foreign-owned land,” among other things, according to the House Appropriations Committee.

The Senate, however, has yet to take up these bills.

The leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), both previously said they’re at an impasse because they have no agreement on a top-line number for fiscal 2027 spending.

Despite the gridlock, Collins has scheduled a markup of four spending bills this week, according to Bloomberg News.

Blanche to meet with Tillis

Tillis, a key Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that he will meet with Blanche, the acting attorney general, this week. The meeting comes as Blanche is undergoing the Senate confirmation process to take on the role of attorney general.

Tillis hasn’t been shy about opposing Trump’s priorities since he announced his retirement last year and has been a vehement critic of the “anti-weaponization” fund the Trump administration proposed. The fund would have paid out to people who believed they were unfairly prosecuted or investigated under the Biden Department of Justice.

Blanche had previously said the administration would not move forward with the fund amid GOP backlash. But Tillis said he wants Blanche to guarantee the fund, which he warned could pay out settlements to people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is dead for good.

“I still want that 1.776 turkey dead with a stake in it,” he said of the assurances he wants from the administration that it won’t attempt to resurrect the $1.776 billion fund.

Tillis has also warned that anything in Blanche’s record that suggests he voiced support for Jan. 6 rioters would pose a big obstacle to him voting yes.

He noted that Blanche played a constructive role in getting the Justice Department to drop its criminal investigation of former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a probe that Tillis loudly criticized as lacking merit. Tillis blocked Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee to succeed Powell as Fed chair, to put pressure on the administration to drop the charges against Powell.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, met with Blanche last week and wrote on the social platform X that it was a “positive interview.”

“He committed to further briefing on the tax audit issue involving President Trump and his family. I will not make a decision on confirmation until after that briefing and completion of his hearing before the committee,” Cornyn added.

Rebecca Beitsch, Helen Huiskes and Alexander Bolton contributed.