Former Indiana Senator Dan Coats is Trump’s pick for Director of National Intelligence. How did he vote in Congress?

Former Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) was recently selected as President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as Director of National Intelligence. Coats served in the Senate from 2011 until just a few weeks ago, declining to run for reelection and retiring at the start of the new Congress on January 3, before which he represented Indiana in the House for 17 years from 1981 to 1998. What bills had Coats introduced and how had he voted in Congress, especially on issues related to national intelligence?

One note before continuing: it’s been reported that Trump might attempt to significantly downsize if not outright eliminate the Office of National Intelligence, which Coats is tasked with leading. Coats does not appear to have yet made any remarks about it. (Energy Secretary nominee Rick Perry, who had called for the elimination the Energy Department when he ran for president in 2011, expressed support for the department, which he would be leading, during his confirmation hearing. )

Edward Snowden and digital surveillance

Coats sides with opponents of whistleblower Edward Snowden who say he should be jailed — or worse — for breaking the Espionage Act and that his revealing of top-secret documents endangered national security. (Snowden revealed information about the extent of National Security Agency spying, wiretapping, and surveillance of U.S. citizens.)

Coats voted against the USA Freedom Act of 2015, a law that attempted to remedy some of the issues revealed through Snowden’s disclosures in the greatest curtailment of digital surveillance by Congress since 9/11. Notably, it returned archiving of digital communications to phone and email companies rather than the government, while imposing some limits on so-called “bulk collection” of metadata. Although Senate Democrats voted almost entirely in favor 43–1, the issue split Senate Republicans fairly evenly though with a slight majority against, 23–30.

“The current program operates under strict oversight by the nation’s top federal judges, Congress and officials across several different federal agencies … The new program will render our counterterrorism tools less agile and less reliable, while requiring an expansive regulatory system to match the level of oversight that currently exists,” Coats said in a statement after the vote. “Today, our country faces the most distributed and diverse terrorist threats since 2001, and the USA Freedom Act makes us less safe and at greater risk.”

Coats also accused fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) of lying about the extent of digital surveillance in order to raise more campaign donations. And while Trump’s pick for CIA Director, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS), has called for Snowden to be given the death penalty, it doesn’t appear that Coats has ever gone quite that far.

Guantanamo Bay and torture

The Guantanamo Bay prison and detention facility in Cuba, owned and operated by the U.S., is considered by opponents a black mark on America’s human rights record and a recruitment tool by the terrorist enemy. Coats opposed President Obama’s ultimately-unsuccessful 2016 plan to close the prison and transfer prisoners to the U.S., and voted twice in 2012 and in 2013 to prevent transfer or release of existing Guantanamo prisoners.

“For years, the facility at Guantanamo Bay has been a valuable tool in our counterterrorism efforts,” Coats said in a statement after Obama’s announcement. “Moving Guantanamo detainees into the United States poses significant security risks, and we should not endanger American families simply for President Obama’s legacy. There is strong, bipartisan opposition in Congress to bringing terrorists to American soil. I will fight any plan that closes Guantanamo without congressional approval.”

Bills sponsored or cosponsored by Coats last Congress about national intelligence

In the most recent Congress, the final one in which Coats served, he introduced 15 bills or resolution, yet only one directly related to national intelligence or security. Coats also cosponsored 138 bills last Congress — although that was the sixth-fewest among all senators. Among those related to national intelligence and security:

• The Counterterrorism Border Security Enhancement Act. S. 542, introduced by Coats, would have required the State Department to revoke the passport of any U.S. citizen who engaged in (or was suspected to have engaged in) terrorism, increase information-sharing requirements with other nations so the U.S. would know more about foreigners who were entering the country, and enhanced scrutiny on U.S. citizens who travel to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, or Syria. The bill attracted three cosponsors, all Republicans, but never received a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
• The Liberty Through Strength Act. S. 2295, from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK), was introduced as a counter to the aforementioned USA Patriot Act and would have made it both easier and extended permanently the ability for the federal government to conduct “roving surveillance.” The bill never received a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
• The Visa Waiver Program Security Enhancement Act. S. 2337, from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), would have prevented citizens from the 38 countries currently exempt from U.S. visa requirements from visiting the U.S. without a visa if they had been to Syria or Iraq in the preceding five years. The bill attracted 25 Senate cosponsors but never received a vote.
• The No Ransom Payments Act. S. 3285, from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), would have prevented payments to Iran for hostages or for other purposes unless Iran both paid American victims of Iranian terrorism and returned the $400 million payment to Iran from the Obama Administration, which the U.S. had owed for decades but but which many Republicans considered “a ransom.” The bill attracted 28 Senate cosponsors, all Republicans, but never received a vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

During his 23 years in Congress, Coats was the lead sponsor on seven bills or resolutions enacted into law — and that include resolutions marking a week in November 1984 as National Adoption Week and another designating a week in January 1986 as National Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Awareness Week.

Other metrics

Coats ranked as one of the 7th-most conservative Senate Republicans in this past Congress, according to GovTrack’s methodology. Among all senators, he tied for the second-fewest bipartisan bills produced, with only one of his 15 bills and resolutions attracting at least one Republican and one Democratic cosponsor. He was also the 11th-least bipartisan senator himself, as only 16 percent of the bills he cosponsored were introduced by a Democrat.

Amid concerns from some critics regarding a possibly too-cozy relationship between Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, no such concerns are likely to permeate surrounding Coats. Coats is currently banned by Russia from entering their country — along with a number of other U.S. lawmakers — as a countermeasure to U.S. sanction of Russia imposed in 2014 as a response to their annexation of Ukraine.

This is the seventh installment in a GovTrack Insider series analyzing the congressional tenures of Trump’s appointees key administration positions. Read GovTrack Insider’s articles analyzing Vice President Mike Pence’s 12 years in Congress, Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions, CIA Director nominee Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Tom Price, Office of Management and Budget Director nominee Mick Mulvaney, and Interior Secretary nominee Ryan Zinke.

This article was written by GovTrack Insider staff writer Jesse Rifkin.