Senate Democrats step up pressure to face Donald Trump: Surveillance battle becomes final battleground

The move by Senate Democrats to allow the oversight authority to expire reflects their growing willingness to confront President Donald Trump in Congress, the AP reported.

As opposition to his policies and appointments grows, they increasingly block legislation, including measures that traditionally enjoy bipartisan support.

The stance represents a significant shift from a year ago, when Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer faced criticism from within his own party for joining Republicans in a vote to avert a government shutdown. Since then, Democrats have taken a more confrontational approach, contributing to a government shutdown, delaying President Donald Trump’s nominations and most recently blocking a bipartisan intelligence measure in an effort to gain influence in the Republican-controlled Congress, the AP reported.

The risky strategy has consequences when government programs fizzle out, and Democrats don’t yet have much to show for it in terms of political victories.

Republicans say it is a serious threat to national security that a surveillance law designed to prevent terrorist attacks should expire just as millions of people are entering the United States for World Cup games and as the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations are underway.

But the tough approach has helped unite Democrats inside and outside the Capitol, who say they have no choice — and that the blame should fall on Trump for how he’s governing.

“I don’t deny that it’s dangerous,” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Thursday of Democrats allowing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to expire on Saturday. “But this didn’t have to happen.

Democrats’ growing confidence also comes at a time when Republicans are often grappling with Trump, who has made it clear he has little interest in compromising with lawmakers of both parties. Democrats are blocking the renewal of the law, known as FISA, to protest Trump’s appointment of federal housing regulator and loyalist Bill Pulte to lead the nation’s intelligence agencies on an interim basis. The choice also stunned Republicans, who said Pulte lacked the experience required for the job.

Lawmakers from both parties have been pressing Trump all week to withdraw the appointment, and on Thursday he named a permanent replacement for the post just after lawmakers left Washington for the weekend. But the Senate confirmation process will take time, and Trump has not moved on Pulte’s appointment as interim director.

Without change, Democrats “will use every tool we have to fight back,” said Schumer, DN.Y.

The FISA standoff has gained some respect among Senate Democrats since the base voters revolted a year ago. Schumer and the committee “have moved into a more combative position,” says Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist who served as an adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the AP reported.