Sponsors (8)
The bill tightens privacy protections and oversight for U.S. persons by restricting agency queries and government purchases of commercial data, but does so at the cost of added compliance burdens, litigation risk, and potential constraints on time‑sensitive intelligence and law‑enforcement operations.
Most U.S. persons: Agencies generally cannot query U.S. persons' communications without a probable‑cause warrant and courts must apply stricter standards before compelling broker-held records, strengthening privacy and reducing warrantless surveillance.
People whose data are held by commercial brokers: Limits on government purchases of broker data and higher judicial standards for compelled disclosure reduce routine warrantless access and secondary misuse of commercial data.
Taxpayers and the public: Increased oversight and accountability — FISC review of queries, Attorney General annual assessments, congressional reporting, and mandated minimization procedures — make surveillance activity more transparent and subject to external review.
Law enforcement and intelligence operations (and therefore public safety): Restrictions on querying U.S. persons and limits on buying broker data can slow or hinder time‑sensitive investigations and foreign-intelligence collection, potentially reducing the government's ability to detect or respond to threats.
Taxpayers and federal agencies: New compliance, auditing, reporting, training, and oversight requirements increase administrative costs for agencies and will be borne by taxpayers.
Federal employees and contractors: New administrative and criminal penalties, together with narrower exceptions, increase risk of liability and could deter legitimate, time‑sensitive actions.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires warrants for most queries of U.S. persons' communications by intelligence actors and bars government purchases of certain consumer/device records from data brokers, with limited exceptions.
Introduced March 5, 2026 by Andrew S. Biggs · Last progress March 5, 2026
Creates new limits on how intelligence and law enforcement officials may search and buy people’s digital information. It bars intelligence analysts and contractors from querying the communications or related records of a United States person without a court‑issued probable‑cause warrant except in narrow, specified situations, requires reporting and oversight, and establishes penalties for violations. It also amends the Stored Communications Act to prohibit federal agencies from buying certain consumer and device records from data brokers in exchange for money or other value, and clarifies how amendments in the Act refer to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).