# Plain Language Summary: Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act

This bill puts new restrictions on how the FBI can search through foreign intelligence data collected by the National Security Agency. Under current law, the NSA collects communications from foreign targets overseas, but this data sometimes includes information about Americans who happen to communicate with those foreign targets. The FBI can currently search through this collected data fairly freely. This bill says the FBI needs to get approval before searching for information about Americans in that database, with some exceptions for emergencies like threats to someone's life.

The bill creates several new safeguards. First, FBI agents must get permission from a supervisor or lawyer before they can search for an American's name or information in the NSA's foreign intelligence database. Second, if the FBI wants to search for information about elected officials, political candidates, religious organizations, or journalists, they need approval from higher-ranking officials—sometimes even the FBI's Deputy Director. Third, the FBI must keep detailed records of who searched for what and why, and the Department of Justice will audit these searches. Fourth, if the FBI searches for a member of Congress, they have to notify that member and congressional leadership about it.

The bill also prevents the FBI from using this foreign intelligence data purely to find evidence of ordinary crimes. The FBI can still use it if there's an emergency threat to someone's safety or if they need the information for a court case, but they can't just go fishing through the database to build a criminal case. Additionally, the FBI can't store this sensitive foreign intelligence data in the same computer systems as other information unless they set up safeguards to prevent accidental searches. Finally, the bill says the FBI shouldn't load this data into their general databases unless the person being investigated is already the subject of an open national security investigation.

Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act

Lee, Laurel M.

Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act This bill reauthorizes Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for five years and makes changes to FISA, including certain restrictions on surveillance under Section 702. (Sec. 702 concerns electronic surveillance of non-U.S. persons believed to be outside the United States to obtain foreign intelligence information. Information about U.S. persons may incidentally be acquired by this type of surveillance and subsequently searched or &quot;queried&quot; under certain circumstances.) The bill places statutory limits on querying the contents of information collected under Section 702, including <ul> <li>prohibiting Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) personnel from making U.S. person queries without prior approval by certain FBI supervisors or attorneys unless the query might mitigate or eliminate a threat to life or serious bodily harm;</li> <li> requiring the FBI Deputy Director to approve certain politically sensitive query terms (such as those that identify certain elected and appointed officials);</li> <li> prohibiting the involvement of political appointees in the approval process for such politically sensitive query requests; and </li> <li> requiring the FBI Director to establish consequences for noncompliant querying of U.S. person terms, including zero tolerance for willful misconduct. </li> </ul> Other provisions include <ul> <li> requiring applications for a surveillance order under FISA to be supported by sworn statements and limiting the use of information in such applications derived from political organizations or media sources, </li> <li>increasing criminal penalties related to FISA, and </li> <li> requiring adverse consequences (e.g., suspension without pay or removal) for government officers and employees who engage in intentional misconduct with respect to proceedings before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. </li> </ul>