Sponsors (4)
The bill increases transparency, standardized reporting, and judicial safeguards for electronic‑surveillance while providing limited federal funding and phased implementation — but it raises significant privacy and national‑security exposure risks and imposes substantial administrative and compliance costs on courts, providers, and taxpayers.
The public, researchers, and journalists gain regular, machine-readable reporting and searchable public access to court surveillance orders, inventories, and summary counts, increasing transparency and accountability about government electronic-surveillance use.
People whose data may be accessed (subscribers/customers) and recipients of disclosures get clearer notice and records about when providers disclose or when the government seeks content or account records, improving their ability to challenge or seek remedy for unauthorized access.
Courts gain stronger procedural safeguards and judicial oversight (e.g., requirements aligning third-party orders with Federal Rules, court review/redactions for secrecy orders, detailed inventories), which can deter overreach and improve lawful process.
Law-enforcement and national-security interests risk exposure because publicly posting surveillance applications, provider names, inventories, or granular annual reporting could reveal sensitive investigative details, techniques, or priorities and harm ongoing operations.
People named in filings (including victims, witnesses, or ordinary subscribers) face increased privacy and safety risks if sensitive identifying details appear in publicly posted materials or inventories, and notice delays can postpone their ability to contest searches.
Courts, providers, and government agencies will incur substantial one-time and ongoing administrative and technical compliance costs (electronic docketing, producing inventories, compiling reports, redactions, IT security), which will ultimately fall on taxpayers and strain local budgets—especially where federal grants are limited.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Mandates public, searchable posting of criminal-surveillance applications/orders/returns, tightens notice and inventory rules, requires judicial reporting, and funds court upgrades with grants.
Introduced February 25, 2026 by Ronald Lee Wyden · Last progress February 25, 2026
Requires courts to make criminal-surveillance applications, orders, and return/inventory records publicly available in a text-searchable form, tightens notice rules to people whose communications or records are sought, and forces inventories to disclose any unauthorized disclosures or searches. Creates judge- and agency-reporting requirements, a grant program to help State and Tribal courts update systems, and small appropriations to the courts office to implement the changes; most rules generally take effect two years after enactment (with longer delays for some State/Tribal courts or certified security problems).