President Donald Trump’s decision to install Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte as the nation’s top intelligence official drew a blistering rebuke from the Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat on June 2, 2026, who warned that handing the country’s classified secrets to a housing regulator with no national security background imperils the integrity of the Intelligence Community.
Pulte replaces Tulsi Gabbard, who announced on May 22, 2026, that she would step down on June 30 to support her husband’s bone cancer treatment.
Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., the committee’s vice chairman, used an open Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in Washington to denounce the appointment hours after President Trump announced that Pulte would take on the dual role of FHFA director and Director of National Intelligence. The unusual arrangement, announced on June 2, leaves Pulte running a financial regulator and the sprawling Intelligence Community at the same time.
“I thought I’d seen it all. I thought I couldn’t be shocked anymore,” Warner said. “The fact that President Trump announced today that Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, will also serve as Director of National Intelligence frankly stuns me.”
A Post Built for National Security Veterans
Warner reminded colleagues that Congress created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence following the September 11 attacks, establishing the post as the linchpin of a reformed intelligence apparatus. Lawmakers wrote into law that the position be filled by an individual with extensive national security experience — a guardrail designed to ensure that whoever sits atop the 18-agency Intelligence Community arrives with deep operational credibility.
By Warner’s accounting, Pulte does not come close to meeting that bar. The senator ticked off the disqualifications one by one: no time in the military, no time in Congress, no time in the diplomatic corps and no time in law enforcement. “Mr. Pulte has none of that. Zero,” Warner said.
The hearing where Warner delivered his remarks was nominally devoted to two other intelligence nominations — Dr. L. Roger Mason to serve as Director of the National Reconnaissance Office and Michael J. Vance to serve as Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. But Trump’s announcement, made earlier that day, hijacked the proceedings.
Warner Cites FHFA Conduct as Disqualifying
The vice chairman’s sharpest charge concerned Pulte’s tenure at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Warner accused the FHFA director of weaponizing private information against the president’s political opponents, pointing specifically to actions taken against Lisa Cook and Sen. Adam Schiff. Turning the country’s classified holdings over to such an official, Warner argued, would be reckless.
“It is an insult to the thousands of people in the Intelligence Community who serve to keep our nation safe and have the ultimate responsibility to be willing to speak truth to power,” Warner said, framing the appointment as both a political maneuver and an institutional injury.
Warner also raised concerns about congressional oversight and the durability of public confidence in critical intelligence authorities, including Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — a surveillance tool whose periodic reauthorization battles have repeatedly tested the relationship between Capitol Hill and the spy agencies. Placing a politically pliant figure atop ODNI, he suggested, could complicate that already fragile détente.
Acting Title, Permanent Questions
Pulte will serve as acting director of national intelligence, not as the Senate-confirmed permanent occupant. Trump has separately ruled out Pulte as permanent director, indicating the housing chief’s stint atop the Intelligence Community is intended as a stopgap rather than a long-term assignment.
That distinction did little to soften Warner’s objections. Acting officials can wield the full authorities of the office, including access to the most sensitive compartmented information and the power to shape intelligence priorities across the federal government. The senator pledged to use every available avenue to oppose the appointment, signaling that Democrats on the committee intend to press the issue through hearings, written demands and procedural tools, even as the minority’s formal leverage over an acting designation remains limited.
The dual-hat arrangement is itself unusual. The FHFA, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, demands the attention of a full-time regulator at a moment of strain in the housing market. ODNI, meanwhile, is responsible for coordinating intelligence collection and analysis across agencies that together employ more than 100,000 personnel. Critics inside and outside the committee have questioned whether any single official can credibly discharge both portfolios simultaneously.
Video of Warner’s remarks was released by his office. The White House has not detailed how Pulte will balance the two jobs or when a permanent DNI nominee might be sent to the Senate. For now, the housing chief sits at the helm of the intelligence enterprise that Congress built in the rubble of Sept. 11 — an outcome Warner described as one he could scarcely have imagined.
