I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5396 
To amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to require reviews 
by amici curiae of applications made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveil-
lance Court, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 11, 2019 
Mr. STEWART (for himself, Mr. NUNES, Mr. CONAWAY, Mr. TURNER, Mr. 
WENSTRUP, Mr. CRAWFORD, Ms. STEFANIK, Mr. BISHOP of North Caro-
lina, Mr. GAETZ, and Mr. HURD of Texas) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition 
to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 
to require reviews by amici curiae of applications made 
to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘FISA Improvements 
Act of 2019’’. 
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SEC. 2. ENHANCED FIDELITY OF FISA APPLICATIONS AND 
PROCESSES ASSOCIATED WITH THE FOREIGN 
INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE COURT. 
(a) MANDATORY REVIEW BY AMICUS CURIAE.—Sec-
tion 103(i) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 
1978 (50 U.S.C. 1803(i)(2)) is amended— 
(1) in paragraph (2)— 
(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘; 
and’’ and inserting a semicolon; 
(B) in subparagraph (B), by striking the 
period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(C) by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph: 
‘‘(C) shall appoint an individual who has 
been designated under paragraph (1) to serve 
as amicus curiae to assist such court in the 
consideration of any initial application for an 
order that seeks to target an identifiable United 
States person pursuant to sections 104, 303, 
703, or 704.’’; and 
(2) in paragraph (4)— 
(A) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) 
through (C) as clauses (i) through (iii), respec-
tively; 
(B) by striking ‘‘If a court’’ and inserting 
‘‘(A) NOVEL
OR
SIGNIFICANT
INTERPRETA-
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TIONS OF LAW—If a court’’, and adjusting the 
margins accordingly; and 
(C) by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph: 
‘‘(B) INITIAL APPLICATIONS.—If a court 
established under subsection (a) appoints an 
amicus curiae under paragraph (2)(C), the ami-
cus curiae shall review the submitted applica-
tion for which the individual has been appointed 
to assess the sufficiency of evidence supporting 
the probable cause determination required to 
issue an order pursuant to the application and 
provide to the court a written recommendation 
regarding such sufficiency.’’. 
(b) DISCLOSURE OF UNVERIFIED INFORMATION.— 
Section 104(a) of such Act (50 U.S.C. 1804(a)) is amend-
ed— 
(1) in paragraph (8), by striking ‘‘; and’’ and 
inserting a semicolon; 
(2) in paragraph (9), by striking the period at 
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(3) by adding at the end the following new 
paragraph: 
‘‘(10) a statement fully disclosing the use of 
any information in the application that the Govern-
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ment cannot substantiate based on any supporting 
intelligence or open-source information available to 
the Government at the time of the application, in-
cluding, at a minimum— 
‘‘(A) the origin of such information; 
‘‘(B) the means by which the Government 
obtained such information; 
‘‘(C) a summary of each step the Govern-
ment took to verify the information prior to 
using the information in the application; 
‘‘(D) whether the Government has used 
such information in any other judicial pro-
ceeding; and 
‘‘(E) the necessity of using such informa-
tion to support the probable cause determina-
tion required by section 105.’’. 
(c) TRANSCRIPTS OF PROCEEDINGS.—Subsection (c) 
of section 103 of such Act (50 U.S.C. 1803) is amended— 
(1) by inserting ‘‘, and shall be transcribed’’ be-
fore the first period; and 
(2) by inserting ‘‘, transcriptions,’’ after ‘‘appli-
cations made’’. 
(d) WRITTEN RECORD
OF INTERACTIONS WITH 
COURT.—Such section is further amended by adding at 
the end the following new subsection: 
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‘‘(l) WRITTEN RECORD OF INTERACTIONS.—The At-
torney General shall maintain all written communications 
with the court established under subsection (a), including 
the identity of the employees of the court to or from whom 
the communications were made, regarding an application 
or order made under this title in a file associated with 
the application or order. The Attorney General shall docu-
ment a summary of any oral communications with the 
court, including the identity of the employees of the court 
to or from whom the communications were made, relating 
to such an application or order and keep such documenta-
tion in a file associated with the application or order.’’. 
(e) EXTENSIONS.—Section 105(d)(2) of such Act (50 
U.S.C. 1805(d)(2)) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new sentence: ‘‘To the extent practicable, an ex-
tension of an order issued under this title shall be granted 
or denied by the same judge who issued the original 
order.’’. 
Æ 
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