Cybersecurity Policy Report, Lawmakers ask GAO to probe federal surveillance of Americans’ financial records, (Aug 11, 2026)

By Nora Macaluso

The letter said government agencies are “exploiting legal gaps” to improperly access information about Americans.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and a bipartisan group of House representatives asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate what they called federal law enforcement’s “widespread surveillance of Americans’ personal bank accounts and financial records.”

Agencies including the Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) “are improperly exploiting legal gaps to spy on law-abiding citizens,” said Wyden and Reps. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.).

“Americans’ financial records can reveal deeply sensitive information,” including medical data and political causes they support, the members of Congress wrote in a letter to Acting Comptroller General Orice W. Brown. “Despite the sensitivity of this data, Americans’ financial records receive few protections against government surveillance and existing legal authorities have at times been abused or stretched beyond their intended purpose.”

The lawmakers asked the GAO to investigate the government’s use of four specific practices:

• Failure to notify individuals when their bank records are turned over to the government. Noting that the Justice Department disclosed in 2024 that it does not keep track of compliance with legal requirements for notification, they asked the GAO to review federal agencies’ compliance with the Right to Financial Privacy Act, evaluate the DOJ’s recordkeeping with regard to the Act, and quantify “the extent to which Americans are being left uninformed when their records are seized.”

• Use of National Security Letters (NSLs). The lawmakers asked the GAO to determine whether the FBI is complying with 2016 guidelines requiring individualized written justification for obtaining historical financial records. “A nondisclosure requirement is not the default,” they wrote.

• Warrantless “hotwatch” tracking. Congress has not passed any laws authorizing real-time financial surveillance, and the Justice Department has relied on the “broad and ambiguous” 1789 All Writs Act instead of seeking statutory authority from Congress, the lawmakers said. They asked the GAO to audit into the scale, frequency, and legal justifications behind the administration’s court-ordered "hotwatches."

• FinCEN and FBI searches. “Agencies have allegedly directed banks to run broad, informal searches across customer databases via Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and Bank Secrecy Act mechanisms,” the lawmakers said. These “dragnet” searches “sweep up innocent Americans, circumvent PATRIOT Act safeguards, and permanently gag banks from telling customers their records were turned over,” they said.

The lawmakers requested that the GAO compile its findings into a report with “recommendations for legislative or executive reforms to ensure appropriate judicial oversight, protect innocent Americans, and enforce statutory notice requirements.”

LegislativeActivity: BankSecrecyAct BankingOperations CyberPrivacyFeed DataPrivacy FinancialStability GCNNews OversightInvestigations Privacy DataSecurity