* Senate vote fails to advance FISA Section 702

reauthorization, with bipartisan opposition

* Democrats object to Trump's appointment of Bill Pulte

as acting director of national intelligence

* Some Senate Republicans also oppose Trump's unrelated

funding proposals amid broader legislative tensions

By Nolan D. McCaskill and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - Seven Republicans in the

U.S. Senate on Friday joined Democrats to block debate on

reauthorization of an expiring foreign surveillance law.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

will expire on June 12 without congressional action. But a vote

to begin debate failed early Friday, 47-52. Only one Democrat,

John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted in favor of it.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune lamented that nearly every

Democrat opposed the procedural vote. But the vote nonetheless

represented a significant setback for Republicans, who narrowly

control both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Democrats have taken issue with President Donald Trump's

appointment of Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill

Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, despite his

lack of national security experience.

Thune said the Trump administration will have to consider

whether Pulte's role is an impediment to extending the

warrantless domestic surveillance powers measure, which Congress

voted to extend for 45 days on April 30.

"Next week, it gets real," Thune told reporters. "A few days

from now ... the program goes dark. I just think that would be a

dangerous mistake for the country. Hopefully, responsible folks

will come to the table and at least help us figure this out."

While the timing of Pulte's appointment "arguably wasn't the

best," Thune said, "I still don't think it ought to derail

something that's this important."

The setback marked one more development that saw some

Senate Republicans balking at a range of Trump initiatives,

including his push for $1 billion in funding to help him build a

90,000-square-foot White House ballroom and establish a $1.776

billion fund that he could use to funnel money to his political

allies who claim they have been mistreated by the government.

Polls show a lack of public support at a time when voters

want Washington to do something to ease a rising rate of

inflation that is partially the result of the United States' war

with Iran that has hampered the international movement of oil.

(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill. Editing by Michael Learmonth

and Chizu Nomiyama )