Questions about the future of another reconciliation package are rippling through Congress, with implications for how and when lawmakers take up the annual defense policy bill. Mitchell Miller joins us with the latest from Capitol Hill.<br>See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Congress is at a pivot point on reconciliation and the defense bill

The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

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**Podcast:** The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

## Transcript

Federal Drive is presented by GEHA, Government Employees Health Association, proudly providing health and dental benefits to federal employees and their families. Visit GEHA.com. Questions about the future of another reconciliation package are rippling through Congress with implications for how and when lawmakers might take up the annual defense policy bill. Mitchell Miller joins me now with the latest from Capitol Hill. Mitchell, great to have you. Thanks for joining me. Great to be here.

This is the first time in a while that we haven't had to talk about funding for ICE and CBP, but we have plenty of other things to talk about. One of our recurring topics has been FISA, and now the House failed to renew it. They've left for recess, and we have a new D&I nominee.

So this is an issue where, as you know, passing FISA Section 702 was always going to be somewhat difficult, given lawmakers' various views of how it could be implemented, so that it doesn't result on any surveillance picking up Americans overseas. But this has frankly been a big mess that the White House is now trying to clean up.

And with the nomination now of Jay Clayton, the federal prosecutor from New York who served as securities and exchange commission chair during the president's first term, President Trump has largely given lawmakers from both parties what they wanted. And the president's first confirmation hearing has already been scheduled for this Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

One problem, the current D&I, Tulsi Gabbard, is scheduled to leave office this Friday. So it's unclear if Clayton can get confirmed before she leaves, probably not. And Democrats have made it very clear they won't vote to confirm Clayton if Pulte is allowed to be acting D&I even for a day. And basically, everyone here on the Hill has the same question. Why did President Trump wait so long to nominate Jay Clayton?

Because that would have given him an exit ramp that would have avoided a lot of this conflagration that happened last week where the House couldn't get the FISA passed, as you mentioned. They even tried a unanimous consent effort in the Senate, and that failed as well. So it seems to be kind of an unforced error on the part of the White House. Mitchell, even when they have a candidate here for the D&I position that everybody can agree to, they still don't really have agreement on the provisions of FISA that they want to have go forward, do they?

Right. I mean, there's still a lot of disagreement among lawmakers, for example, about how much of the legal aspect do you need in terms of getting a warrant? Something to actually specifically say this is who we are going after. And some feel it's been kind of a little bit too loosely used by the FBI and other agencies. So there's still a lot of disagreement related to that.

A lot of conservatives, particularly in the House, have said they w...

Congress is at a pivot point on reconciliation and the defense bill

Transcript

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Congress is at a pivot point on reconciliation and the defense bill

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.