Senate Democrats’ decision to let a key surveillance authority lapse comes as they are increasingly emboldened in their legislative fights against President Donald Trump, blocking even traditionally bipartisan bills as they push back against his policies and personnel.
The posture is an escalation from a year ago, when Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer was widely criticized within his party for a spring vote with Republicans to keep the government open. Since then, Democrats have forced government shutdowns, slowed Trump’s nominations and now blocked the bipartisan intelligence law as they seek leverage in a Republican-led Congress.
The risky strategy has consequences when government programs go dark, and Democrats have little to show for it so far in terms of policy victories. Republicans say it is a grave threat to national security to let the surveillance law, which aims to prevent terrorist attacks, expire just as millions of people are entering the United States for World Cup games and as celebrations for the nation’s 250th anniversary get underway.
But the hardball approach has helped unite Democrats inside and outside of the Capitol as they say they have no other choice — and that the blame should fall on Trump for how he is governing.
“I don’t deny that this is dangerous,” Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Thursday about Democrats allowing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to expire starting Saturday. “But this didn’t have to happen.”
Democrats’ growing confidence also comes at a time when Republicans are often sparring with Trump, who has made clear he has little interest in compromise with lawmakers in either party. Democrats are blocking renewal of the law, known as FISA, in protest of Trump’s appointment of federal housing regulator and loyalist Bill Pulte to temporarily lead the nation’s intelligence agencies. The choice also rankled Republicans, who said Pulte lacks the required experience for the job.
Lawmakers in both parties urged Trump all week to pull the appointment, and on Thursday he nominated a permanent replacement for the job just after lawmakers left Washington for the weekend. But the Senate confirmation process will take time, and Trump has not budged on Pulte’s appointment as an interim director.
With no change, Democrats “are going to use every tool we have to fight back,” said Schumer, D-N.Y.
The standoff over FISA has won Senate Democrats some respect with base voters revolted a year ago. Schumer and the caucus have “shifted to more of a fight posture,” says Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist who served as an aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Republicans say blocking FISA is a dangerous strategy
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Democrats have been playing “fast and loose” with national security for the past year. He pointed to the 43-day government shutdown last fall and a monthslong delay in funding for Trump’s immigration enforcement operations.
“How did we get to the point where one party has completely abdicated any responsibility for our nation’s security?” Thune asked.
Democrats argue that Pulte, with little national security background, is a greater threat. They note that as a federal housing regulator, he has pushed for investigations of high-profile political figures whom Trump considers political foes.
“It’s not a close call,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. “We cannot extend these capabilities if the president is making clear that he’s going to use them not to protect the nation, but to protect himself politically.”
Democrats fight for more leverage
Strategist Payne says he believes Democrats have gained a bit of leverage since the shutdown in the fall.
Democrats did not get the extension in health care subsidies they demanded because a small group of moderate Democrats voted with Republicans to end the impasse. They did not achieve the changes to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol that they sought when they delayed passage of funding for those agencies for months. But the White House did agree to negotiate, even if those talks ultimately failed.
Democrats also have grown more unified. While moderates ended the fall shutdown, the party stayed together in blocking the immigration funding and the surveillance authority.
“They’ve showed Republicans they are not going to fold,” Payne said.
Still, it may not be enough for some in the party base or to win Democrats a majority in November's midterm elections.
Andrew O’Neill, national advocacy director for the Democratic resistance group Indivisible, said he was concerned to see some Democrats praise Jay Clayton, Trump’s permanent pick for the intelligence job.
Republicans are rushing to confirm Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, before Tulsi Gabbard leaves the job and Pulte takes over as interim director on June 19.
It is unclear, so far, if Democrats will support Clayton or allow Republicans to speed up the process and confirm him quickly.
O’Neill said he is glad Democrats blocked FISA over Pulte’s appointment, but activists are wary.
“It’s a mixed bag,” O’Neill said of the past year. “The frustration is it took so long.”
Republicans navigate Democrats and Trump
Caught in the middle are Senate Republicans, who had to spend months to fund border enforcement agencies and are now navigating the dispute over FISA, even after lawmakers reached a bipartisan compromise.
Republicans are also trying to work with Trump, who derailed the intelligence legislation when he announced Pulte’s appointment as senators were on the verge of passing that deal.
Trump has weakened Republicans' position — and his own support in the Senate — by backing primary challenges to incumbent senators. Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana both lost in primaries to Trump-backed opponents last month and have joined Democrats in criticizing Pulte.
Senate Democrats say hope their strategy gives them enough leverage to win more Republican allies.
Being in the minority is “a difficult dynamic for us,” said Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt. “But I’m seeing the Republicans start to move a little bit.”