‘Unprecedented Mass Surveillance’: Bipartisan Senators Warn Of Privacy Threat Tied To FISA Renewal

Bipartisan senators are warning that a privacy threat tied to artificial intelligence (AI) could result in mass surveillance of American citizens if the renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) does not include sufficient guardrails.

Efforts to renew the federal surveillance law ahead of its expiration have been complicated as House GOP leaders scramble to secure enough support to pass a clean 18-month extension aligned with President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson’s requests, according to a Politico report. Both are pushing to reauthorize the law without changes before Monday’s deadline.

The growing power of AI is driving new worries among both Republicans and Democrats about government agencies’ warrantless purchases of Americans’ sensitive data. (RELATED: Brutal Political Battle Awaits The GOP In Not-So-Distant Future)

Commercially available information obtained from data brokers for criminal investigations, military operations and national security circumvents constitutional restrictions on information agencies can gather from Americans, Politico reported.

Although agencies’ surveillance capabilities were once constrained by the labor and expertise needed to analyze vast amounts of data, AI is enabling officials to easily sift through millions of data points, Politico reported. That shift has prompted a bipartisan group of lawmakers to push for warrant requirements before agencies can purchase such data.

“Artificial intelligence has transformed American industries for the better while enabling an unprecedented capability to glean information from private data, increasing the risk of unconstitutional government overreach,” Republican Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who co-sponsored the renewal of the Government Surveillance Reform Act, said in a statement to Politico.

The 4th Amendment is crystal clear – if the government wants to search or snoop on American citizens, it needs to get a warrant.

FISA should not be an exception.

— Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) April 16, 2024

The bill, introduced by Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee, would require federal agencies to get a warrant when buying Americans’ data and when accessing Americans’ private communications under Section 702 of FISA.

Lee argued in a statement to the Daily Caller that Congress should not approve surveillance powers that allow warrantless searches or bulk data purchases, asserting that FISA must be reformed to better protect Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights. (RELATED: Congress Votes To Extend FBI Warrantless Surveillance Tool Without Reforming It)

“We should not rubber stamp deep-state spying on Americans, whether through warrantless searches of their communications, or allowing the government to purchase their data en masse from corporations. The 4th Amendment is clear: ‘The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.’ We must reform FISA,” Lee stated.

Lummis and other lawmakers are urging Congress to add stronger privacy protections before renewing Section 702 — a program originally intended to monitor non-U.S. citizens, but it has been used to examine Americans’ data without warrants.

I will be voting NO on final passage of the FISA 702 Reauthorization Bill if it does not include a warrant provision and other reforms to protect US citizens’ right to privacy.

Yesterday I offered these 3 amendments to fix the program, but they were not allowed last night. pic.twitter.com/VjN1DVwieP

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 15, 2026

Some lawmakers are increasingly concerned that advances in AI could further expand government surveillance, citing past instances where Section 702 was used to collect data tied to Black Lives Matter protesters and political donors, according to Politico. (RELATED: ‘About To Combust’: Republicans Have Golden Opportunity To End Spying On Americans — But It’s Tearing Them Apart)

FISA was also used to spy on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election cycle.

Democrat Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said in a statement to Politico that allowing the legislation to pass without added safeguards — and failing to curb the government’s purchase of Americans’ data — would amount to negligence.

“Passing FISA 702 without strong new guardrails, while doing nothing to stop the government from buying Americans’ location data and feeding it into AI systems to conduct unprecedented mass surveillance, would be shocking negligence,” Wyden said.

The Caller reached out to Lummis and Wyden for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.