S. 4740: To amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to improve transparency, and for other purposes.

This bill would make several changes to how the federal government uses and reports on surveillance authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), especially Section 702, which allows collection of foreign intelligence information through certain electronic surveillance.

What the bill would do

• Release one FISA court opinion publicly: It would require the Director of National Intelligence, working with the Attorney General, to publicly release a March 17, 2026 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court memorandum opinion and order about Section 702, with redactions only as needed to protect intelligence sources and methods. This would have to happen within 14 days after enactment.
• Require annual reporting on “sensitive queries”: The Attorney General would have to send Congress a yearly report showing:
  • how many requests were made to conduct sensitive queries,
  • how many of those requests were approved and denied, and
  • how many sensitive queries were actually conducted.
  The report would have to break those numbers down by the category of request or query.
• Expand declassification requirements for FISA court decisions: It would require the government to review and, where possible, publicly release FISA Court and FISA Court of Review decisions, orders, and opinions that:
  • make significant or novel legal interpretations,
  • involve a “sensitive investigative matter,” or
  • are recommended for declassification by a court-appointed amicus.
  The bill sets a target of completing this review and public release within 180 days of the decision or opinion being issued.
• Define “sensitive investigative matter”: The bill says this includes investigations involving domestic public officials or political candidates, domestic religious or political organizations, the domestic news media, or similar sensitive matters involving a U.S. person or domestic entity.
• Make certain intelligence violation reports public: Reports submitted under a separate National Security Act provision about violations of law or executive orders would have to be posted publicly online, with redactions to protect sources and methods. Older reports would also have to be published within 180 days.
• Send a DOJ version of the violations report to Congress: The Attorney General, working with the Director of National Intelligence, would have to provide the House and Senate Judiciary Committees a version of that report covering violations of FISA.
• Add reporting on U.S. person queries outside FISA: The bill would require a good-faith estimate of how many U.S. person search terms and queries each intelligence community element used to retrieve information collected under Executive Order 12333, which governs intelligence activities outside FISA.
• Extend Section 702 temporarily: It would push the current expiration/repeal date for Section 702 from June 12, 2026 to July 17, 2026, effectively extending the authority by about five weeks.

Practical effect

In plain terms, the bill would increase public disclosure and congressional reporting about surveillance activities, court decisions, and potential legal violations, while also briefly extending Section 702 so it does not lapse immediately.

Relevant Companies

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