Sponsors (6)
The bill strengthens privacy protections, accuracy requirements, transparency, and limits on facial-recognition use—benefiting minors, non-convicted people, and civil liberties—while imposing compliance costs, procedural burdens, litigation risk, and potential funding penalties that could reduce public-safety resources and expand some forms of surveillance depending on how federal standards are applied.
People arrested as minors, and people who were released without charge, had charges dismissed, or acquitted will have arrest photos removed on a schedule, and use of facial recognition is limited (single-use, time-limited, court-ordered or narrow emergency exceptions), reducing long-term misidentification and arbitrary government surveillance.
Mandatory testing, annual audits, NIST benchmarking, and operator training aim to reduce accuracy problems and demographic bias in facial-recognition systems and improve reliability before deployment.
Increased transparency and public reporting (agency policies published, audit results, judge/prosecutor reports, DOJ/AOUSC reporting) create more oversight and public awareness of government facial-recognition use.
States and localities that fail to meet the compliance standard risk losing 15% of anticipated public-safety grant funding next year, which could force cuts to police and public-safety programs and services.
Broad civil-liability exposure (statutory damages up to $50,000 per violation, punitive damages, fees) creates significant litigation risk and potential taxpayer costs for agencies and officers.
A broad statutory definition of 'facial recognition' and a wide conception of reference databases (including driver’s license, passport, and commercial datasets) could enable intrusive surveillance and expand government access to personal data.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Limits law‑enforcement use of facial recognition on reference photo databases, requires court orders/oversight, mandates data deletions, sets NIST standards, and authorizes NIST funding.
Introduced July 23, 2025 by Ted Lieu · Last progress July 23, 2025
Restricts how law enforcement can use facial recognition against databases of identified photos by requiring court orders (with limited emergency exceptions), agency approvals, and specific procedural safeguards. It mandates regular deletion of certain arrest photos (including minors and people released/dismissed/acquitted), requires State DMVs to post notices, directs NIST to create testing, standards, and training, and authorizes $5 million per year for FY2026–2029 for that work. It also conditions federal grant awards (a 15% reduction) for states or localities that fail to substantially comply, narrows disclosure of driver’s license photos for facial-recognition use, requires covered federal agencies to publish use policies within 90 days, preserves stronger state/local privacy laws, and waives State sovereign immunity for violations of the Act.