Effective Antiterrorism Tools for Law Enforcement Act of 1997
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Effective Antiterrorism Tools for Law Enforcement Act of 1997 - Amends the Federal criminal code to apply provisions regarding pen registers and trap and trace devices to foreign counterintelligence and international terrorism investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Requires any common carrier, public accommodation facility, physical storage facility, or vehicle rental facility to comply with a request for records in its possession by the FBI under specified circumstances.
Provides that provisions prohibiting the use as evidence of intercepted wire or oral communications in violation of the Federal criminal code shall not apply to the disclosure by the United States in a criminal trial or hearing or before a grand jury of the contents of a wire or oral communication, or evidence derived therefrom, unless the violation involved an interception under provisions covering specified emergency situations or bad faith by law enforcement.
Grants: (1) wiretap authority in cases of terrorism-related or explosives felonies; and (2) temporary emergency wiretap authority involving terrorism crimes.
Expands authority for multi-point wiretaps.
Authorizes the Attorney General to request, and the Secretary of Defense to provide (if specified conditions are met), technical assistance in support of Department of Justice activities in situations involving biological or chemical weapon emergencies. Sets penalties for the use without lawful authority of, or attempts or conspiracy to use, chemical weapons.
Modifies Federal prohibitions against the use of weapons of mass destruction to prohibit and penalize only such use without lawful authority.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime.
- Introduced in House Formatted Text PDF
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 275: Effective Antiterrorism Tools for Law Enforcement Act of 1997. 105th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/105-HR-275/
"H.R. 275: Effective Antiterrorism Tools for Law Enforcement Act of 1997." 105th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/105-HR-275/.
H.R. 275, 105th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/105-HR-275/.
[H.R. 275: Effective Antiterrorism Tools for Law Enforcement Act of 1997](https://openamerica.io/bill/105-HR-275/)