FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017

FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017

This bill amends the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to extend the Act through December 31, 2025.

The bill prohibits the intelligence community from intentionally acquiring a communication about a non-U.S. entity if the communication contains a reference to the entity but is not from or directed to that entity (this kind of communications collecting is called abouts collection) unless the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) submit to Congress a written notice of the intent to implement the authorization of such communications collection. The notice triggers a 30-day congressional review period that requires Congress to pass specific legislation in order to prohibit the authorization of such communications collection. Information obtained about a U.S. person through an abouts collection can only be used against that U.S. person for specified criminal proceedings.

The bill allows the FISA court's amici curiae (lawyers who argue against the government's FISA requests) to participate in matters pertaining to abouts collection.

DOJ and the ODNI must create procedures and keep records pertaining to queries, which are searches done with data the government already acquired and use a specific search term for the purpose of discovering or retrieving content or metadata. 

The bill exempts the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board from certain open meetings laws.

The penalty for the unauthorized removal of classified documents or materials is increased to up to 10 years in prison.