SAFE Act
Sponsored By: Senator Lee, Mike [R-UT]
In Committee
Summary
Tight limits on Section 702 queries and data acquisitions. This bill would restrict when the FBI and other intelligence agencies can search communications about U.S. persons or people located in the United States, add new approvals and training, expand audits and reporting, and sharply limit law enforcement purchases and use of brokered personal data.
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- Members of Congress and prominent U.S. persons get special protections: queries of a Member’s personal information generally need the Member’s consent or a Deputy Director determination and congressional leadership must be notified within three business days of consent requests or exigent queries.
- FBI, DOJ, and intelligence staff face new rules and oversight: mandatory pre-query training and attorney pre-approval for sensitive searches, plus DOJ audits of covered queries on a 180-day cycle with each audit to be completed within 90 days and results delivered to Congress.
- Online service providers, intermediaries, and data brokers see tighter limits: the bill broadens who counts as a provider, bans value-for-data acquisitions by covered governmental entities except narrow exceptions, requires strict minimization and destruction of non-exempt data, and bars use of improperly obtained data in prosecutions.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
6 provisions identified: 5 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
More audits and reporting on surveillance
If enacted, the Attorney General and DNI would publish an annual, agency-by-agency report about Section 702 queries and related metrics, subject to declassification review. The DOJ must audit each 180-day period after enactment, finish each audit within 90 days after the period ends, and give unredacted audit results to appropriate congressional committees within 30 days of completion. The DOJ Inspector General would do an initial FISA compliance audit by June 30 of the first calendar year after enactment and then every three years. The bill would broaden which congressional committees get unauthorized-disclosure notices and require FISC declassification or public-review work to finish within 180 days.
Tighter limits on accessing U.S. data
If enacted, this bill would bar agency officers from accessing the content of U.S. persons' communications obtained under Section 702 in response to a covered query, except with a probable-cause warrant or a narrow set of listed exceptions. It would require Section 702 acquisitions to be limited to targeting non-U.S. persons abroad and say targeting U.S. persons may not be a purpose. The bill would also impose new FBI query rules: pre-query and annual training, prior attorney approvals for many sensitive queries and bulk queries, a written factual justification for each covered query, recordkeeping of query terms and personnel, and opt-in controls for including unminimized Section 702 material. Members of Congress get special notification rules when their identifying information is used as a query term, subject to a narrow waiver for active investigations.
Limits on government buying your data
If enacted, this would bar covered governmental entities from buying or otherwise obtaining covered personal data about people in the United States from data brokers, with narrow exceptions such as court orders, consent, emergencies, and certain employment uses. Agencies would have to destroy covered personal data when it is no longer needed and could not use data obtained in violation of the ban in investigations or prosecutions. The bill would also raise the legal standard for forcing non-online service providers to disclose personal data and bar intermediaries from knowingly sharing contents of stored communications. The Attorney General and DNI would publish ‘‘derived from’’ rules within 90 days and adopt minimization rules to exclude or delete non-exempt covered data before operational use.
Stronger court rules and accuracy checks
If enacted, any officer who files a FISA application would have to describe agency accuracy procedures and certify that material supporting and potentially disqualifying information were collected and reviewed. Applicants would have to give the court all government information material to the decision, including exculpatory information, and judges must find accuracy procedures adequate before approving orders. The bill expands the FISC's ability to appoint privacy and civil-liberties amici and lets amici seek review or declassification. It would make knowingly filing materially false statements or knowingly disclosing a FISA application to unauthorized people a crime, with an exception for authorized whistleblowers. Applications relying on media or campaign material must disclose provenance and explain corroboration.
New limits and timing for surveillance tools
If enacted, directives under certain FISA authorities would be limited to defined classes of service providers and require declassification review and fast notice to the FISA court and Congress, with specified 7-day and 30-day review deadlines. The bill would set a fixed April 20, 2028 expiration date for certain Title VII references and would revert some recent provider-definition changes effective December 31, 2026. It would also end the grandfathered Title V business-records authority for covered investigations 180 days after enactment.
Agency rules and penalties for FISA violations
If enacted, heads of federal agencies that acquire foreign intelligence would have to adopt procedures defining FISA violations and set adverse personnel actions, including escalated penalties for repeat violations. Agencies would have to report to Congress within 90 days on implementing these rules.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Lee, Mike [R-UT]
UT • R
Cosponsors
Sen. Durbin, Richard J. [D-IL]
IL • D
Sponsored 4/13/2026
Sen. Lummis, Cynthia M. [R-WY]
WY • R
Sponsored 4/15/2026
Sen. Hirono, Mazie K. [D-HI]
HI • D
Sponsored 4/15/2026
Sen. Cramer, Kevin [R-ND]
ND • R
Sponsored 4/15/2026
Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT]
VT • I
Sponsored 4/15/2026
Sen. Scott, Rick [R-FL]
FL • R
Sponsored 4/20/2026
Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ]
NJ • D
Sponsored 4/20/2026
Sen. Cruz, Ted [R-TX]
TX • R
Sponsored 4/21/2026
Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA]
MA • D
Sponsored 4/21/2026
Sen. Daines, Steve [R-MT]
MT • R
Sponsored 4/22/2026
Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR]
OR • D
Sponsored 4/22/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov