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# Government Surveillance Transparency Act of 2023 This bill seeks to increase transparency and oversight of law enforcement surveillance activities by imposing strict limits on how long courts can keep surveillance orders sealed and requiring eventual notice to surveillance targets. The legislation creates new rules for criminal surveillance orders, including wiretaps, cell phone tracking, and pen registers, establishing that courts generally cannot seal these orders indefinitely and must unseal them automatically once the underlying surveillance ends. Law enforcement can request temporary sealing periods of up to 180 days that may be extended, but subsequent extensions require increasingly rigorous justification demonstrating that disclosure would cause specific harms like endangering lives or destroying evidence. The bill requires courts to maintain publicly accessible dockets of surveillance applications with basic information about the order type, duration, and outcome, though certain sensitive details can be redacted if truly necessary. Importantly, the legislation mandates that people subjected to surveillance eventually receive notice of that surveillance, unless delayed under strict conditions tied to the sealing periods. The bill also establishes reporting requirements for judges and directs the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to publish annual statistics about surveillance applications. Federal courts must implement these requirements within two years of enactment, while state and tribal courts have four years to comply if they lack electronic docking systems. The legislation provides $25 million in grants to help state and tribal courts upgrade their technical capabilities, plus $1 million for federal courts to implement the changes.

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