Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2026
HB7901, the Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2026, is a broad overhaul of federal surveillance law. It would amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and related criminal surveillance statutes to impose new warrant requirements, tighten limits on queries and targeting, restrict data retention, and expand oversight and transparency. The bill focuses heavily on protecting U.S. persons and people located in the United States from warrantless access to communications, location data, browsing history, search queries, vehicle data, and other personal information, while also extending section 702 of FISA for four years.
A central feature of the bill is to narrow how intelligence and law enforcement agencies may query, retain, and use information collected under section 702 and other foreign intelligence authorities. It would bar or limit warrantless queries for covered persons, prohibit reverse targeting, require a primary foreign-intelligence purpose, impose five-year destruction rules for certain retained data, and require documentation, reporting, and court supervision for technical assistance and sensitive queries. The bill also creates or expands procedures for amicus participation, declassification of significant FISA decisions, written records of Justice Department interactions with the FISA Court, and new reporting on accuracy, compliance, and the use of surveillance against protected activities and protected classes.
The bill would substantially amend federal surveillance and privacy law, especially FISA and chapters 119, 121, 205, and 206 of title 18. It would add new statutory protections for communications content, location information, web browsing records, search queries, metadata, and vehicle data; create new limitations on federal law enforcement purchases of personal data from data brokers; and establish new rules for state and local access to communications and records. It also would repeal or revise several existing FISA provisions, extend section 702 through April 20, 2030, and add new reporting, minimization, and accountability obligations for the intelligence community, the Department of Justice, and the courts.
The bill appears to reflect a reform-oriented, privacy-protective approach and is framed as a major surveillance-reform package. Its sponsors include members associated with civil liberties and surveillance oversight issues, suggesting support from lawmakers concerned about warrantless surveillance, transparency, and misuse of personal data. No committee transcript or vote history is available in the provided material, so there is no recorded debate or roll-call sentiment to assess beyond the bill’s text and sponsorship.
The most likely points of contention are the bill’s restrictions on intelligence and law-enforcement access to data, including warrant requirements for many queries and acquisitions, limits on data retention, and bans on purchasing personal data from brokers. Intelligence and law-enforcement agencies may object to the added court supervision, documentation, and reporting burdens, as well as the proposed narrowing of existing authorities and the repeal of certain expanded querying and provider definitions. Another likely issue is the bill’s treatment of state and local authorities: it preserves their existing powers in some respects, but also creates new federal-style privacy limits for state and local access to certain data, which could draw concern from both privacy advocates and law-enforcement stakeholders.