{"id":350,"date":"2026-06-18T04:12:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=350"},"modified":"2026-06-18T04:12:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:12:56","slug":"an-empty-committee-room-defines-senate-white-house-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=350","title":{"rendered":"An empty committee room defines Senate-White House relations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

An empty Senate Intelligence Committee room summed up the mood Wednesday afternoon during what was supposed to be an easy step in Majority Leader John Thune\u2019s plan to revive a lapsed surveillance authority.<\/p>\n

Read more 6 House primaries to watch in New York<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, the key spy powers tool, the committee room and senators themselves were left in the dark after President Donald Trump directed the hearing\u2019s witness \u2014 Jay Clayton, his pick to be director of national intelligence \u2014 not to appear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen anything quite like this,\u201d Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the longest-serving member of the intelligence panel, told reporters earlier that day.<\/p>\n

As the hearing\u2019s scheduled 2 p.m. start time neared, not everyone had gotten the memo it was canceled. A handful of spectators sat in the public viewing chairs until about 15 minutes before, when a committee aide informed them the hearing wasn\u2019t happening. By 2 p.m., the room was nearly empty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, Jay Clayton was on the brink of having a very good hearing and probably even getting some Democrat support,\u201d said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who is retiring at the end of this term. \u201cAnd now we\u2019re in a posture to where it may be the reason why 702 doesn\u2019t get reauthorized.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a mistake,\u201d Tillis added.<\/p>\n

A week ago, Trump had nominated Clayton, seemingly offering an olive branch after Democrats said they would not vote to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act if Trump moved forward with his plan to have Bill Pulte temporarily head the intelligence agency. Meanwhile, on Friday night, that spy authority lapsed.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans this week rushed to schedule Clayton\u2019s confirmation hearing in an effort to restart FISA negotiations with Democrats and confirm Clayton before the controversial Pulte takes over Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That changed when Trump, in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, said Clayton won\u2019t be going forward until \u201cJamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney,\u201d and declared he wouldn\u2019t approve a FISA reauthorization unless a separate voter ID bill was attached.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His demands perplexed Democrats and Republicans alike.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said after a GOP conference lunch that \u201cthere\u2019s some frustration because now 702 is going to stay dark, and that\u2019s a danger for the country,\u201d pointing to summer events to mark America\u2019s 250th birthday and the World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of people here from around the world, and we\u2019ve got regimes like the Iranian regime mad at us \u2026 and we basically blinded our intelligence community, because 60 percent of the president\u2019s daily brief comes from 702,\u201d said Cornyn, who won\u2019t be returning to the Capitol next year after Trump backed his challenger in a primary runoff. \u201cSo, by tying all these together, and then also saying, \u2018Well, you got to pass the SAVE America Act,\u2019 which we know we don\u2019t have the votes for \u2014 we got to find a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

All week, Republican senators have been touting the FBI\u2019s thwarting a planned drone and gun attack on Sunday\u2019s UFC fight on the White House lawn as an example of why they need to reauthorize the program. But communication between the two sides of Pennsylvania Avenue has deteriorated, complicating calculations for Thune. The leader told reporters Wednesday he has not spoken to the president in a few days.<\/p>\n

\u201cLess than optimal,\u201d was how Tillis described communication with the White House. \u201cI think it\u2019s undermining our ability to produce the very results he wants.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Georgia Republican leaders won\u2019t pursue redistricting during special session<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018A day at a time\u2019<\/h2>\n

Thune said Wednesday he\u2019s not sure what the next steps on FISA will look like. \u201cWe\u2019ll take it a day at a time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [Clayton] would be confirmed quickly, but I can only do what I can do here,\u201d Thune said. \u201cThe president \u2014 this is his nominee, and so obviously he made a decision not to move forward at the moment. We\u2019ll see what comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., when asked about next steps, put it more simply: \u201cI don\u2019t know. Prayers?\u201d<\/p>\n

Senators said Wednesday that it\u2019s too soon to move on the McDonald nomination, considering the committee has yet to receive the paperwork necessary to adequately process his pick. McDonald is part of Trump\u2019s orbit of personal lawyers and would fill the plum U.S. attorney slot vacated by Clayton in the Southern District of New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no background investigation, there\u2019s nothing for his nomination,\u201d said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Judiciary Committee. \u201cWhat [Trump] is doing is just inflicting chaos.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even if they can figure out the nominations, some in Congress are still divided over policy questions tied to FISA, like warrant requirements and how to protect the privacy of Americans whose data can be swept up in searches.<\/p>\n

Thune also threw cold water on Trump\u2019s threat he will \u201cnot approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know he said that, but he\u2019s said that about a lot of other things,\u201d Thune said Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The leader has maintained that the Senate doesn\u2019t have 60 votes for that measure, which would require voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering and photo ID at the polls. Thune has shared that message with the president \u2014 but more senators on Wednesday began cementing it, too, following the White House\u2019s rug pull.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kennedy noted that Senate Republicans tried and failed during the vote-a-rama to pass SAVE-related amendments. They couldn\u2019t muster a simple majority, much less the 60 votes\u2014 the sweeping election overhaul bill would need to pass in the Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want a Porsche for my birthday. I\u2019m not going to get it. That\u2019s not the way this place works, and that\u2019s just the way it is,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cI don\u2019t blame the president for trying, and I can assure you if Thune could deliver the SAVE Act, he would, he really would.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Moore and Maloy try to stave off GOP primary challenges in Utah<\/a><\/p>\n

Nina Heller contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An empty Senate Intelligence Committee room summed up the mood Wednesday afternoon during what was supposed to be an easy step in Majority Leader John Thune\u2019s plan to revive a lapsed surveillance authority. 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