Sponsor
Ronald Lee Wyden
Senator · D-OR
Senator · D-OR
The bill increases transparency and congressional oversight of intelligence surveillance while briefly preserving Section 702 authorities, but it raises substantial national-security risks, administrative costs, and extends privacy-invading collection that could delay reforms.
Congress, oversight bodies, and the public gain clearer, more consistent information on government surveillance (new reporting requirements and metrics), enabling targeted oversight and potential legislative reforms.
Federal intelligence authorities avoid an immediate lapse in Section 702 authority for five weeks, preserving operational continuity for national-security and law-enforcement activities.
Members of the public, journalists, and researchers will get timely access to FISC and FISC-Review opinions and the court reasoning about Section 702 and related surveillance, improving public accountability and the ability to evaluate legal compliance.
Making FISC opinions, counts, and related reports public risks revealing classified sources, methods, or legal interpretations that adversaries could exploit, potentially harming intelligence operations and investigations.
Extending Section 702 collection for five more weeks keeps U.S. and non-U.S. communications subject to that authority, prolonging privacy concerns and delaying the implementation of any intended privacy protections or reforms.
Preparing, reviewing, and redacting opinions and compiling the new/disaggregated metrics imposes significant administrative costs and staff time on DOJ, ODNI, and intelligence components.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Requires public release of a March 17, 2026 FISC opinion, new annual reports on "sensitive queries" and EO 12333 U.S.-person query estimates, faster declassification of FISC opinions, public posting of violation reports, and a five-week delay of the Section 702 sunset.
Official title: Amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to improve transparency, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 10, 2026 by Ronald Lee Wyden · Last progress June 10, 2026
Requires public release of a March 17, 2026 FISC opinion on Section 702 and creates a set of new transparency and reporting rules for surveillance programs: annual counts of “sensitive query” requests and outcomes, faster declassification and publication of FISC/FISCR opinions (including those involving "sensitive investigative matter"), public posting of DNI reports on violations, and new disclosure of estimates of U.S. person queries under EO 12333. It also delays the statutory sunset for Section 702 by five weeks (from June 12, 2026 to July 17, 2026) and sets timing rules for when some provisions take effect.