House Pushes FISA Vote Despite Likely Failure Amid Pulte Dispute

—House leadership moved forward with a vote on a short-term extension of FISA surveillance authorities even as internal Republican disputes over director William Pulte made passage unlikely. The Pulte controversy involves Republican members who are dissatisfied with decisions made by the intelligence director and are withholding support as leverage. The maneuver put national security authorities at risk of lapsing due to what critics characterized as an unrelated political grievance. The episode illustrated the difficulty of governing with thin House margins when individual members can use procedural hostage-taking to extract concessions.