Federal agents must get warrants to use state spy cameras
H.R. 9716 — PRIVACY Act · Filed by Keith Self (R-TX) · 7 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 15, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill says federal agents cannot access spy data from state and local police without a warrant. A federal judge must approve the warrant first. The bill covers four types of spy tools: license plate readers, face recognition cameras, and others. It stops federal money from buying these spy tools. If agents break this rule, evidence gets thrown out of court. People can sue the government. Workers can face punishment.
Who it affects
People gain protection against agents accessing spy data without a warrant. State and local police must follow new rules when federal agents want to use their spy cameras.
One thing to notice
The bill creates a warrant rule that did not exist before. Agents may claim emergencies to skip the warrant rule in some cases.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
7 cosponsors: 7 Republicans.
- Jul 15, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 15, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Oversight and Government…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- warrant — A court order that lets police search or collect data from a specific person or place
- spy cameras — Cameras that watch and record people and places
- license plate readers — Cameras that automatically read and record car license plate numbers
- face recognition — Technology that identifies people by scanning their faces in photos or video
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (12,611 characters) on Jul 25, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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