House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Monday he will not support renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as long as Bill Pulte remains the acting director of national intelligence.

President Donald Trump named Pulte acting DNI after Tulsi Gabbard resigned to care for her husband, Abraham Williams, who has an aggressive form of cancer. Pulte also serves as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

"Reversing the Bill Pulte appointment is a starting point, not an ending point," Jeffries told reporters about negotiations to renew Section 702, which allows surveillance of foreign targets overseas for foreign intelligence purposes.

Although Congress has not approved a long-term reauthorization of Section 702, lawmakers have enacted short-term extensions that keep the surveillance authority in effect while negotiations continue.

Jeffries said there was no scenario in which he would reauthorize Section 702 with Pulte serving as acting DNI.

He told reporters FISA negotiations were "already in a very sensitive place" before Pulte began his new role. Lawmakers remain divided over whether the legislation should require warrants before officials can access communications involving Americans and foreign intelligence targets.

"Then Donald Trump, as he often does, tosses a hand grenade into those sensitive negotiations by elevating Bill Pulte as director of national intelligence, someone who's a political hack, a malignant clown, and he's woefully unqualified to serve in any position in the federal government, let alone as acting director of national intelligence," Jeffries said.

Although Trump said Thursday that Pulte would not be his "permanent" choice for the top intelligence post, lawmakers in both parties have said Pulte is not qualified to serve as DNI. They have pointed to Pulte's lack of national security experience.

Pulte's critics have accused him of using FHFA authorities against several prominent Trump opponents, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook. Pulte and his allies have argued that he was pursuing legitimate mortgage fraud concerns.

"The ongoing conversations being led by Jim Himes are clearly to get to good-faith negotiations," Jeffries said, referring to the Democrat lawmaker from Connecticut. "The effort to elevate Bill Pulte as the acting director of national intelligence should be reversed immediately, and then let's see where we wind up at the end of the week."