Wyden Warns Fellow Senators about Executive Branch Surveillance

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2025–Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent a letter to his colleagues Wednesday, informing them that they had “been kept in the dark about executive branch surveillance of Senate phones, because the three major phone carriers — AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile — failed to establish systems to notify offices about surveillance requests, as required by their Senate contracts.”

Wyden further warned his colleagues that their personal phones were still at risk of being secretly surveilled, and urged them to “seriously consider switching mobile carriers for their campaign and personal phones to carriers that will provide them with notice of government demands.”

Wyden told his colleagues that “as a result of the oversight investigation conducted by my staff, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile have indicated that they are all now providing such notice [of executive branch surveillance].” However, AT&T and Verizon are only providing notice of surveillance for phones paid for by the Senate, leaving open the possibility that senators' personal and campaign phones may still be secretly monitored.

Wyden warned that “this kind of unchecked surveillance can chill critical oversight activities, undermine confidential communications essential for legislative deliberations, and ultimately erode the legislative branch's co-equal status.”

He urged fellow senators to switch to a mobile carrier that would notify them of executive branch surveillance, citing Google Fi Wireless, U.S. Mobile, and Cape as plausible alternative providers. He also noted that these three carriers “have policies of notifying all customers about government demands whenever they are allowed to do so. The latter two companies adopted these policies after outreach from my office.”

Wyden also warned the public at large, saying that “beyond members of Congress, journalists, political activists, people seeking reproductive health care and other law-abiding Americans who could be targeted by the government all have reason to be concerned about secret surveillance of their communications and location data.”

“We are complying with our obligations to the Senate Sergeant at Arms. We have received no legal demands regarding Senate offices under the current contract, which began last June,” AT&T said.

This warning comes in the wake of increased concerns about the security of senators’ communications. In October 2024, news broke that China had intercepted communications from some senators and senior staff.

Then in December 2024, the Department of Justice released a report detailing its surveillance of Senate staffers. Wyden has proposed legislation that would allow the Sergeant at Arms to provide cybersecurity help for senators’ campaign and personal phones.