Lawmakers Push FISA Overhaul as AI Supercharges Surveillance Concerns

The fight over Section 702 has narrowed to a blunt question: can Congress keep up with surveillance tools that now move faster than the rules meant to restrain them? Lawmakers warning about AI say the answer is no, and they argue that ordinary Americans face new privacy risks when government agencies can search vast commercial data sets, or use foreign-targeting powers in ways that sweep up U.S.-person information.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was last reauthorized on April 20, 2024, when Congress passed the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act and extended the authority for two years. That set the current sunset date at April 20, 2026. The law was first enacted in 2008, after the post-9/11 warrantless surveillance program was exposed, and it has remained a flashpoint ever since because of concerns about warrantless collection and government querying of Americans’ communications.

Those concerns have only sharpened as artificial intelligence and data brokerage markets have grown. In April 2026, Senator Ron Wyden said advances in technology, from AI to the explosion of Americans’ data available for purchase, have outpaced privacy law. On March 12, 2026, Wyden joined Representatives Zoe Lofgren and Warren Davidson and Senator Mike Lee in introducing the bipartisan, bicameral Government Surveillance Reform Act. The bill would require warrants for searches of Americans’ data and close the data-broker loophole that allows federal agencies to buy personal information without judicial approval. It also targets reverse targeting, the practice in which surveillance aimed at foreigners overseas can become a back door to collect Americans’ data.

The push comes after years of complaints that Section 702 has been used in ways Congress never intended. In March 2026, 53 members of Congress urged leadership to include Fourth Amendment protections in any reauthorization, including warrant requirements and an end to the data broker loophole. Senate Judiciary Democrats have also said the law’s history includes use against protesters, members of Congress, journalists and political donors.

There are some guardrails, but critics say they remain incomplete. The Department of Justice Office of Inspector General issued a review of FBI querying practices under Section 702 in October 2025, following a RISAA mandate. That review said the FBI’s initial post-RISAA decision to limit approval of U.S.-person queries to attorneys improved compliance. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board’s 2026 staff report also concluded that Section 702 remains one of the country’s most valuable tools for countering foreign threats.

That split now defines the reauthorization fight. The Justice Department and FBI still call Section 702 a vital national-security authority, while civil-liberties advocates say AI and brokered data have made the privacy threat broader than Congress imagined when it built the program nearly two decades ago. The House Judiciary Committee held an oversight hearing on Section 702 on December 11, 2025, and lawmakers are still deciding whether to renew the law cleanly or attach stricter limits before the surveillance powers are extended again.