Sens. Wyden and Lummis Introduce Bill to Stop Bulk Collection of Phone and Internet Records
The Subpoena Abuse Prevention Act is currently in the early stages of the legislative process. It was recently introduced in the Senate and sent to the Committee on the Judiciary for review. There are no upcoming votes scheduled at this time.
Even with support from both parties, bills that limit law enforcement powers often face a difficult path and frequently stall in committee.
Scores run from -100 (strongly harmful) to +100 (strongly beneficial) for each group, combining impact, certainty, scope, and duration ratings of 1-5. How impact scoring works
People who are subjects of federal investigations could benefit from the requirement that subpoenas target specific individuals rather than sweep up data in bulk. The perjury certification requirement also adds a safeguard against abusive or pretextual investigations. However, the bill does not limit warrants or other judicial orders, so the impact on criminal investigations overall is modest.
“for any administrative, grand jury, or trial subpoena, the governmental entity identifies the subscriber or customer by name, address, temporarily assigned network address, or account identifier (such as a username)”
Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.
Introduced in Senate
The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.
A bipartisan coalition led by Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Adriano Espaillat introduced the Subpoena Abuse Prevention Act to reform the government's use of administrative subpoenas, which allow agencies to collect personal data without a judge's order, following a Post investigation into DHS abuses.
The Subpoena Abuse Prevention Act (S.B. 4594) would end the government's ability to use subpoenas to obtain subscriber data in bulk. It requires investigators to identify specific targets by name or account and mandates certification that the request is not for retaliatory purposes.
Sens. Ron Wyden and Cynthia Lummis, along with a bipartisan House coalition, introduced legislation to require the government to obtain a judge's order for phone records. The bill aims to prevent the use of subpoenas to spy on Americans for exercising their constitutional rights.
No votes recorded for this bill yet.
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
Subpoena Abuse Prevention Act
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