Congress tightens FBI surveillance rules, restores warrant requirement for U.S. persons
S. 3893 — SAFE Act · Filed by Mike Lee (R-UT) · 7 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 23, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The SAFE Act (Security And Freedom Enhancement Act of 2026) amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to impose new restrictions on how the FBI and other agencies can query communications collected under Section 702 of FISA. It requires mandatory audits of FBI queries, mandates training and prior approval for sensitive queries (especially those targeting elected officials, judges, media, and religious organizations), prohibits warrantless access to U.S. persons' communications without a warrant or specific exception, and establishes accountability procedures for FBI employees who violate these rules. It also requires disclosure of exculpatory information in FISA applications and extends Section 702 authorities to April 20, 2028.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is restoring Fourth Amendment protections by requiring warrants or exceptions before FBI access to U.S. person communications collected under Section 702. It is fundamentally a privacy-protection and accountability measure, not a deregulation or carve-out.
What the text implies
- The bill's requirement that FBI queries of Section 702 data receive prior approval for sensitive targets (elected officials, judges, media, religious organizations) may slow legitimate counterintelligence investigations, creating a tension between privacy and national security that is not explicitly addressed.
- The mandatory audit and reporting requirements impose significant compliance burdens on the FBI and intelligence agencies, potentially diverting resources from investigative work.
- The bill's definition of 'covered query' is broad and may capture routine analytical queries, leading to over-compliance and bureaucratic friction.
- The sunset provision on December 31, 2026 for certain service-provider restrictions (Section 106) suggests these reforms are temporary; their permanence is uncertain.
- The bill requires declassification review of FISA Court opinions by December 31, 2026, but does not mandate public release if classification is deemed necessary—transparency gains may be limited.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill substantially strengthens privacy protections for U.S. persons by requiring warrants or specific exceptions before their communications can be accessed, imposing training and approval requirements on sensitive queries, and establishing accountability for violations. Citizens gain enforceable rights against warrantless surveillance and greater transparency through mandatory audits and congressional reporting.
Named in the bill
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Justice (DOJ), Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court), Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Congressional Intelligence Committees, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, House Committee on the Judiciary, Attorney General
Where it stands
7 cosponsors: 4 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
- Feb 23, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Feb 23, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $240,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 8 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 61% of bills with at least one filing.
Mike Lee, the sponsor, reported $242,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability, Inc. — $120,000 on 1 filing
- Demand Progress Action, Inc — $70,000 on 1 filing
- Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability, Inc. — $50,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (50,094 characters) on Oct 26, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,580 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-26.
“Congress tightens FBI surveillance rules, restores warrant requirement for U.S. persons” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s3893 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.