Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are expressing frustration that President Donald Trump directed Jay Clayton, his nominee to be director of national intelligence, not to appear at a scheduled confirmation hearing on Wednesday afternoon, upending plans for the Senate to quickly confirm Clayton and renew lapsed federal surveillance authorities.

“It’s regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing today,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on X, announcing the hearing was postponed after initially indicating he planned for it to continue despite Trump’s objections. “Mr. Clayton is a patriot and a highly qualified nominee, as the president has said repeatedly. While today’s hearing is now unfortunately postponed, I look forward to proceeding with his confirmation in the near future.”

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said he agreed with Cotton, while Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said that if Trump was aware of the consequences of his decision to pull Clayton from the hearing and went ahead anyway, “he made a colossal mistake.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said that she was “surprised” by Trump’s decision to upend Clayton’s confirmation and “concerned that this slows down the renewal of FISA, which is vital to our national security,” referring to foreign surveillance authorities under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) said that it’s Trump’s “prerogative” to pull Clayton from the hearing “but it complicates” matters on the Hill.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-ND) said he was still confident that the nomination would move through eventually, but “it may take a little bit longer, it may delay some things, it puts the country at risk, because FISA 702 is really important.”

“If that goes dark on us because we don’t have it extended, that’s a serious problem that our Democrat colleagues have got to wrestle with,” Rounds continued. “So they need to come around on this particular issue. But at the same time, the sooner we get Jay Clayton, who is absolutely the right guy for the job right now … that takes care of a lot of the other issues.”

The Senate had been attempting to confirm Clayton before Friday, when federal housing chief Bill Pulte, whom lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have criticized as unqualified for the position of DNI, is set to take the reins at the agency.

At a press conference, Senate Democrats blasted Trump for again interfering in bipartisan plans and said they’re unclear whether Clayton’s nomination will proceed.

“It’s on our Republican colleagues to work with us to find a capable director, not someone who’s a menace, and second, then to work with us on renewing FISA,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, demanding that that Senate Republicans “have the courage to buck the president who clearly doesn’t want a DNI director and doesn’t want FISA renewed, all he wants is Pulte.”

Asked for clarity, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the vice chair of the Intelligence Committee, told Jewish Insider that he is “not sure whether Jay Clayton has simply been postponed or withdrawn. I wonder whether Jay Clayton knows whether he has been postponed or withdrawn.”

Warner said that “‘debacle’ [is] an understatement” to describe the current state of play, and warned that having Pulte in the role could further endanger intelligence sharing by U.S. allies, which he said has already been put at risk by outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard.

Schumer warned that providing Pulte with further authorities by renewing Section 702 would be “dangerous to America.”