IC Oversight & Authorities — 2026-04-24

Reps. Massie and Boebert introduce Surveillance Accountability Act requiring warrants for government AI surveillance

Reps. Thomas Massie and Lauren Boebert on April 23 introduced the Surveillance Accountability Act, which would amend Title 18 of the U.S. Code to require federal and local agencies to obtain a warrant based on probable cause before surveilling American citizens using technologies including facial recognition, automated license plate readers, and commercially purchased location data. The bill would close the third-party doctrine loophole and grant individuals standing to sue the government for Fourth Amendment violations. The legislation, drafted in coordination with Ludlow Institute founder Naomi Brockwell, was introduced as a counter-proposal to the House GOP FISA reauthorization bill released the same day, which omits a warrant requirement for FBI queries of Section 702 data.

Analysis
The same-day introduction against the House GOP FISA reauthorization bill is a procedural marker to force direct comparison between competing surveillance-reform philosophies within the Republican caucus, corroborated across sponsors' press releases and Decrypt's independent legislative review. Closing the third-party doctrine loophole and creating a private right of action go further than any prior IC-adjacent warrant legislation, targeting commercial data purchases that have become a de facto collection method for agencies unable to obtain FISA orders. The Massie-Boebert-Brockwell coalition signals an emerging libertarian-privacy alignment that intersects with but diverges from Democratic civil liberties arguments on surveillance reform. The bill is more likely functioning as leverage to pressure the FISA bill's authors into adding a warrant requirement than as legislation with independent prospects.

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