Sponsors (2)
Introduced July 29, 2025 by Ronald Lee Wyden · Last progress July 29, 2025
The bill substantially strengthens Americans' location and communications privacy and oversight of cell‑site simulator use, but does so at the cost of added expense, administrative burdens, potential delays or deterrence of urgent investigations, and possible impacts on prosecutions.
People across the U.S. gain stronger location and communications privacy: the bill bars warrantless use of cell‑site simulators, requires narrowly tailored warrants (time/area) that weigh public-safety/community impacts, and excludes unlawfully obtained data from evidence.
Taxpayers and the public get more transparency and external oversight through required inventories and annual Inspector General reports on applications, grants, emergency uses, and device impacts.
Individuals harmed by unlawful cell‑site simulator use can pursue civil remedies (damages, injunctions), creating a private enforcement avenue and deterrent against misuse.
Federal, state, and local law‑enforcement and intelligence agencies will face substantial new operational costs and procedural burdens to obtain, document, test, and allow third‑party inspections of devices.
The prohibition and high civil/statutory fines (up to $250,000), plus potentially strict emergency criteria, risk deterring or delaying legitimate rapid investigations and life‑saving responses if agencies misinterpret the rules or cannot secure timely warrants.
Excluding unlawfully obtained evidence from trials, while protective of rights, could lead courts to suppress evidence for procedural defects and thereby impede some prosecutions, frustrating victims and prosecutors.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Bans use of cell‑site simulators in the U.S. with narrow warrant and emergency exceptions, imposes fines up to $250,000, and excludes evidence obtained unlawfully.
Prohibits the use of cell-site simulators (devices that mimic cell towers to locate or intercept phones) in the United States, with narrow exceptions for court‑issued warrants and specific emergency situations. Violators face criminal fines up to $250,000, and information gathered through unlawful use (and derivative evidence) generally cannot be used in federal, state, or local proceedings, except to prosecute someone for the unlawful use itself. The bill also bars elements of the intelligence community from using these devices outside the United States when the surveillance target is a U.S. person and clarifies that law enforcement is not authorized to use them abroad. Warrant use is tightly constrained: agencies must show other methods were inadequate, limit location and time, follow Communications Act/FCC rules, and authorizations are initially capped at 30 days with closely limited extensions; emergency exceptions apply under a reasonable‑necessity standard and include immediate‑termination requirements.