Sponsor
Clay Higgins
Representative · R-LA
Representative · R-LA
The bill keeps critical foreign-intelligence surveillance authorities in place for three more years while adding warrant requirements, narrower ingestion/use rules, tighter approver controls, and oversight — trading continued operational capacity and short-term cost stability for delayed reforms, added bureaucracy, and both privacy and security trade-offs.
U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies keep Title VII / Section 702 authorities for three more years, avoiding an operational gap in foreign-intelligence collection.
U.S. persons gain stronger Fourth Amendment–like protections because intentional targeting under Section 702 will require probable cause or a warrant and some unlawfully acquired Section 702-derived information will be excluded from prosecutions.
Congressional and oversight bodies get greater transparency and review: Members and staff will have access to FISC proceedings and GAO will audit Section 702 targeting within a year, improving legislative oversight.
Extending Section 702 authorities for three years prolongs expanded electronic surveillance rules and delays expiration-driven reforms, increasing the period during which privacy intrusions for people communicating internationally may occur.
New probable-cause/warrant requirements and tighter limits on Section 702 targeting reduce the scope and speed of signals-intelligence collection tied to U.S.-person–associated communications, potentially hampering time-sensitive national-security investigations.
Requiring AG/DNI procedures, probable-cause determinations, and added approvals will add bureaucratic steps that can slow investigations and create operational bottlenecks for agencies working on urgent counterintelligence matters.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Extends Section 702 authorities to 2029, requires probable cause/warrant to target U.S. persons, restricts FBI ingestion/approvals, mandates GAO audit and new FISC access procedures.
Introduced April 27, 2026 by Clay Higgins · Last progress April 27, 2026
Extends the statutory authority for certain foreign‑intelligence surveillance powers to 2029 and makes major limits on how the government may target or use communications involving United States persons. It adds a probable‑cause/warrant requirement before intentionally targeting a U.S. person under the Section 702 authority, narrows who may approve FBI queries using U.S. person terms, restricts FBI ingestion of raw Section 702 data into analytic systems, requires new FISC access procedures for Members and staff, and directs a GAO audit of Section 702 targeting procedures. The bill also preserves other warrant authorities, bars introduction at criminal trials of information obtained in violation of the new targeting rules, and sets deadlines for executive branch actions (including an AG rulemaking within 60 days and a GAO report within one year). The sunset date for certain Title VII FISA authorities is extended to April 20, 2029 (effective no later than April 29, 2026).