Arizona Republican Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) has joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers seeking a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into federal law enforcement surveillance of Americans’ bank accounts and financial records.
Biggs’ office announced Tuesday that he joined U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Reps. Warren Davidson (R-OH) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) in asking the congressional watchdog to examine several methods used by federal agencies to obtain or monitor financial information. The lawmakers sent their five-page request to Acting Comptroller General Orice W. Brown on Aug. 10.
The letter calls for a comprehensive review of surveillance practices involving the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
“Americans’ financial records can reveal deeply sensitive information including their religion; the political causes and non-profit organizations they support, including through membership; the doctors’ offices and clinics where they are treated; where they travel and with whom; and countless other private personal details,” the lawmakers wrote.
They added that existing authorities allowing government access to financial records have, in some instances, been “abused or stretched beyond their intended purpose.”
The lawmakers asked the GAO to examine four areas, beginning with federal compliance with notification requirements under the Right to Financial Privacy Act.
The letter states that federal law enforcement agencies can obtain existing records from specific bank accounts through subpoenas, including subpoenas that do not require prior judicial approval. Under the Right to Financial Privacy Act, customers generally must receive notice when the federal government obtains their financial records, subject to statutory exceptions and delayed-notice procedures.
The lawmakers cited an October 2024 Justice Department response included with their letter. The DOJ said its Justice Manual directs prosecutors to follow Right to Financial Privacy Act procedures when seeking customer financial records without alerting an investigative target and said notice requirements are addressed through department training. The department also acknowledged that it does not compile statistics on notices provided under the Right to Financial Privacy Act and Wiretap Act, leaving it unable to tell lawmakers how many individuals had received such notices during the preceding three years.
Biggs and the other lawmakers asked the GAO to determine how consistently federal agencies comply with the notice requirements and how many Americans may remain unaware that their records were obtained.
The second area involves the FBI’s use of National Security Letters (NSLs), to obtain historical financial information without prior judicial review.
The FBI has long had authority under the Right to Financial Privacy Act to issue National Security Letters for certain financial records. The lawmakers asked the GAO to determine whether the bureau is following procedures governing nondisclosure orders attached to those requests.
Under FBI procedures adopted following the USA Freedom Act, a nondisclosure requirement must be supported by an individualized written determination rather than automatically accompanying every National Security Letter. The FBI also established procedures for reviewing and terminating those restrictions when circumstances no longer justify them.
The lawmakers asked the GAO to calculate the percentage of financial-record NSLs issued with nondisclosure requirements, determine how many remain secret after a three-year review point, and examine whether financial institutions receive required notices when those restrictions end.
Their third concern involves real-time monitoring orders known as financial “hotwatches.”
According to the congressional letter, federal agencies have used the All Writs Act to obtain court orders requiring financial institutions to notify the government when new transactions occur in targeted accounts. The lawmakers wrote that Congress has not enacted a statute explicitly authorizing real-time financial surveillance and asked the GAO to determine how frequently the Justice Department seeks the orders, what legal justifications it uses, and what types of financial institutions have been required to comply.
The group also asked the GAO to investigate how the FBI and FinCEN use the Bank Secrecy Act and Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) to conduct searches of financial-institution records.
Banks and other covered financial institutions use SARs to report transactions suspected of being connected to criminal or otherwise suspicious activity. FinCEN describes the SAR system as a mechanism for providing financial intelligence to law enforcement, regulators, and other authorized government agencies.
Federal rules also make SARs confidential. FinCEN guidance states that a financial institution generally may not tell a person involved in a reported transaction that a SAR was filed.
The lawmakers said those authorities serve legitimate law enforcement purposes when banks independently identify suspicious transactions, including potential money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion, and human trafficking. They asked the GAO to examine allegations that the FBI and FinCEN have also directed financial institutions to conduct broader searches across customer databases using criteria supplied by the government.
They specifically asked investigators to determine whether informal search directives have circumvented the particularized identifier requirements contained in Section 314(a) of the USA Patriot Act and to quantify how many otherwise-unsuspected customers may have had their records included in such searches.
“Given the potential for systemic overreach and the erosion of Americans’ privacy, it is critical that Congress and the public obtain a transparent accounting of these programs,” the four lawmakers wrote.
They requested that the GAO issue a formal report examining the practices and recommend potential legislative or executive changes involving judicial oversight, financial privacy, and notice requirements.
The request continues Biggs’ broader push to limit federal surveillance authorities. In March, the Arizona congressman introduced the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act of 2026, legislation aimed separately at reforming surveillance conducted under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) criticized Democratic congressional nominee Amish Shah over his veganism and decade-old remarks linking meat consumption to cancer. The NRCC questioned whether Shah’s support for universal health care extends to government restrictions on meat.
The committee issued its challenge after Politico reported on Republican efforts to make veganism a campaign issue in several battleground races. The report identified Shah among the Democratic candidates whose dietary views and animal-welfare advocacy have drawn Republican scrutiny.
Politico reported that Shah identifies as vegan and founded the Arizona Vegetarian Food Festival. His official biography with the Arizona Legislature described the festival as a philanthropic effort intended to promote healthy eating and eliminate preventable disease.
The NRCC published a video that it identified as footage from a 2015 speech by Shah at the festival. The committee said the recording showed Shah linking meat consumption with “DNA damage” and cancer. Shah later discussed meat and cheese while referring to coronary bypass surgery.
POLITICO reports that Arizona Democrat Amish Shah, a Vegan Socialist, argued in 2015:
🥩Eating meat causes "DNA damage" & cancer
Shah on doctors doing surgery:🧀 "They’re not pulling broccoli out of there, okay? Yeah, they’re pulling cheese and they’re pulling meat out of that"… pic.twitter.com/JgtnIeZxGX
“When they do bypass surgeries, they’re not pulling broccoli out of there, okay?” Shah said. “Yeah, they’re pulling cheese, and they’re pulling meat out of that.”
The committee subsequently asked whether Shah believes a government-run health system “should monitor, ban, tax or limit meat consumption.”
“The more Arizonans learn about socialist Amish Shah, the more clear it gets how out of touch he is with their priorities,” NRCC spokesman Ben Petersen said. “Socialist Shah’s wacky liberal agenda pushing Vegan policies, the Green New Scam, and a socialist government takeover of health care place him squarely out of the mainstream.”
Shah’s current campaign platform calls him a “proven champion for Universal healthcare” and says he would expand coverage, protect Medicare, and lower prescription-drug prices. The published platform also calls for honoring state and local authority to combat factory farming and for ending horse slaughter for human consumption.
As of Friday, the campaign’s published issues page contained no proposal to tax, ban, monitor, or limit individual meat consumption.
Shah is running against Republican nominee Thomas “Jay” Feely for the open First Congressional District seat. Shah won the Democratic nomination in July after defeating the candidate backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Feely won the Republican nomination after receiving President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
Arizona cattle and calves generated approximately $727.2 million in sales during 2022, accounting for 14 percent of the state’s $5.2 billion in agricultural-product sales, according to the USDA Census of Agriculture. Cattle ranked as Arizona’s third-largest agricultural sales category behind vegetables, melons, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, at 27.5 percent, and milk from cows, at 22.4 percent.
Republican Rep. David Schweikert defeated Shah with 51.9% of the vote in 2024. Schweikert subsequently declined to seek reelection and ran unsuccessfully for governor, leaving the congressional seat open.
Arizona House Minority Whip Stacey Travers (D-LD12) is pledging to renew her effort to require clergy to report suspected ongoing or future child abuse disclosed through confidential religious communications. Her legislation failed to advance this year, while the Arizona Supreme Court recently issued a ruling defining the scope of the state’s clergy reporting exemption.
Travers introduced HB 2039 in December. The bill would have amended Arizona’s clergy reporting exemption to require members of the clergy, Christian Science practitioners, and priests to report when there is reasonable suspicion that abuse is ongoing, will continue, or may threaten other minors.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Quang Nguyen (R-LD1) has opposed Travers’ proposals and has said he will not give the measure a hearing while he remains chairman. Nguyen, who is Catholic, said that Travers would have to wait until 2029, when he is no longer a legislator, for the bill to receive a hearing.
“I’m going to be very frank about this,” he said, “this bill has absolutely zero to do with reporting crimes because duty to report already exists in the state of Arizona, just not in the confessional booth,” Nguyen previously told LifeSiteNews. “That is all.… This is a way to go out and destroy our Church. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Congressman and GOP gubernatorial nominee Andy Biggs described the bill at the time as “a terrible attack on Catholics in Arizona by, of course, a Democrat. This bill should never see the light of day.”
A terrible attack on Catholics in Arizona by, of course, a Democrat. This bill should never see the light of day.
Current Arizona law requires specified mandatory reporters who reasonably believe a minor has been abused or neglected to report that information. Clergy may currently withhold a confession or confidential communication when they determine that maintaining confidentiality is “reasonable and necessary within the concepts of the religion.” The exemption applies to the confidential communication itself and does not cover a clergy member’s independent observations of a minor.
HB 2039 would have narrowed that exemption. Under the proposed language, clergy could withhold information concerning abuse that had already occurred unless there was reasonable suspicion that the abuse remained ongoing, would continue, or could threaten other minors. It also would have amended Arizona’s civil clergy-penitent privilege to permit examination of a priest or clergyman concerning a confession when the clergy member determined it involved ongoing abuse.
Under the state’s existing reporting statute, failure to make a required report is generally a class 1 misdemeanor. Failure to report a statutorily defined “reportable offense,” which includes several sexual offenses involving minors, is a class 6 felony.
HB 2039 was assigned to the House Judiciary and Rules committees and received its second reading in January. It did not advance before the Legislature adjourned.
Travers said that she distinguishes between protected religious confession and circumstances in which someone discloses continuing abuse.
“There is a special case when you’re confessing to somebody in your religious organization,” Travers said, describing a confession involving a search for “absolution and contrition.”
She described an admission of ongoing child abuse made with the expectation that clergy will not report it as a “conditional” confession and said she intends to continue pursuing legislation addressing those circumstances.
Nguyen also blocked a similar proposal by Travers in 2023. At the time, Travers said the legislation grew out of the case involving Paul Adams, a Bisbee man, after he disclosed abuse to leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).
That case eventually reached the Arizona Supreme Court.
According to the court, Adams disclosed sexual abuse to Bishop John Herrod around 2011 and later repeated the disclosure during a meeting involving his wife. Herrod subsequently informed Bishop Robert Mauzy, who convened a church disciplinary council. Adams again disclosed the abuse during that proceeding and was excommunicated.
The abuse came to the attention of federal authorities in 2017 after the Department of Homeland Security discovered a video online. Adams and his wife were subsequently indicted. Adams died by suicide in jail before trial, while his wife pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison, according to the Supreme Court’s opinion.
Three of the children later sued the church and several church officials, alleging in part that they failed to comply with Arizona’s reporting law.
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment generally prevents courts and juries from deciding whether clergy correctly applied religious doctrine when determining that withholding a report was reasonable and necessary under their religion, absent fraud or collusion for a secular purpose.
The court also held that religious institutions are entitled to substantial deference in defining what constitutes a “confession,” a “confidential communication,” and who qualifies as clergy. The justices vacated a Court of Appeals decision and affirmed summary judgment for the church defendants.
The court emphasized that its decision concerned interpretation of Arizona law and federal constitutional protections rather than the factual merits of the children’s abuse allegations.
A separate unanimous Arizona Supreme Court ruling issued Aug. 12 further defined the limits of clergy privilege.
In Rodriguez-Ramirez v. State of Arizona, the court held that a communication between a Phoenix pastor accused of sexually abusing his co-pastor’s teenage niece and the co-pastor did not qualify as a protected “confession” under Arizona’s criminal clergy-penitent privilege.
The justices defined a confession as a confidential admission of a crime, sin, or fault to clergy for the purpose of seeking spiritual absolution, consolation, or guidance. Because the communication in that case did not meet the court’s standard, the justices affirmed the superior court’s decision allowing a secretly recorded conversation to be used in the criminal case.
The dispute over Travers’ proposal has particular implications for Catholic priests because Catholic canon law declares the sacramental seal of confession inviolable and prohibits a confessor from disclosing what a penitent reveals during the sacrament.
The Arizona Legislature is scheduled to begin its next regular session in January, when Travers said she intends to renew the proposal.
The University of Arizona and Gila River Health Care have announced a long-term partnership to establish what the university says will be the nation’s first MD-granting medical school branch located on the lands of a sovereign Tribal Nation.
The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix Regional Medical Branch will operate in Sacaton within the Gila River Indian Community and place medical students inside the community’s tribally operated healthcare system for part of their training.
Beginning in July 2027, the branch will admit 10 students each year to the College of Medicine – Phoenix’s three-year Primary Care Accelerated Program. Students will complete the first 18 months of their medical education in Phoenix before moving to Sacaton for another 18 months of clinical education.
Gila River Health Care will provide full-tuition scholarships to participating students and has committed more than $25 million through 2034 for scholarships, faculty positions, and educational infrastructure supporting the branch.
U.S. Reps. Eli Crane (R-AZ-02) and Greg Stanton (D-AZ-04) joined Gila River Indian Community, university, and healthcare officials at Tuesday’s announcement.
Crane praised the agreement Wednesday, saying the partnership would strengthen healthcare in his district.
“It was great to visit the Gila River Indian Community yesterday with @RepGregStanton to celebrate an important agreement between @uarizona and @Gilariverhealth,” Crane wrote. “This partnership will strengthen healthcare in #AZ02 for years to come.”
It was great to visit the Gila River Indian Community yesterday with @RepGregStanton to celebrate an important agreement between @uarizona and @Gilariverhealth.
This partnership will strengthen healthcare in #AZ02 for years to come.
The program is intended to increase the number of physicians working in tribal, rural, and medically underserved communities, where officials say recruiting and retaining healthcare professionals has remained difficult. The University of Arizona said Arizona ranks 42nd nationally for primary care access and cited projections from the Association of American Medical Colleges that the United States could face a shortage of as many as 86,000 physicians by 2036.
University President Suresh Garimella said the program combines accelerated medical education, scholarships, and potential residency opportunities aimed at keeping physicians in the communities where they train.
“Tribal and rural communities have some of the nation’s greatest unmet primary care needs,” Garimella said. “This partnership to establish the country’s first medical school branch within a Tribal Nation will train physicians through an accelerated three-year MD program, support them with full scholarships to free them of debt burden and provide residency opportunities that anchor them to the places and patients they know. That is how you build a physician workforce that remains in the communities that need them most.”
Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said the program could allow members of the community interested in medicine to pursue careers closer to home.
“For too long, many of our young people who dreamed of becoming doctors had to leave home to pursue that goal,” Lewis said. “This partnership with the University of Arizona changes that. It gives them the opportunity to learn, train and build their careers right here in the Community, where they can make a real difference for the people they serve.”
Students will work under faculty supervision across multiple clinical settings within Gila River Health Care while learning about historical, cultural, and social factors affecting healthcare in Native communities. Officials are also exploring the development of primary care residency programs within Gila River Health Care in an effort to retain graduates in underserved communities.
Dr. Fredric Wondisford, dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, told Arizona’s Family that patients in some rural communities can face drives of two to three hours to obtain healthcare.
“The tribal community has unique ways of viewing Western medicine, all of which requires students to be in that community to learn about the community,” Wondisford said. “If they don’t learn about the community, they’re not really going to reach their patients, and they’re not really going to deliver good healthcare.”
Gila River Health Care Board Chairman Robert Pablo said rural healthcare facilities continue to face difficulties attracting trained medical professionals.
“There’s a real challenge for rural health hospitals to recruit trained professionals to come and work in their communities,” Pablo said. “We are very fortunate to launch this first-of-its-kind partnership between Gila River Health Care and the University of Arizona, which will establish a starting ground for these young doctors to jumpstart their careers.”
The Gila River initiative follows another community-based medical education partnership announced by the University of Arizona with Onvida Health in Yuma last year.
The Gila River medical school branch is scheduled to enroll its first 10 students in July 2027.
Arizona’s state-sponsored education savings program has reached a record $3.2 billion in managed assets, with the Arizona Treasurer’s Office reporting a 96.9 percent increase since Treasurer Kimberly Yee assumed administration of the plan in October 2020.
The Arizona Treasurer’s Office announced Tuesday that the AZ529 Education Savings Plan has also added 74,995 new accounts during the 69 months it has operated under Yee’s administration.
The latest figures represent continued growth from the beginning of the year. In January, the Treasurer’s Office reported that the plan held $2.87 billion in assets and had added 63,586 accounts since its transfer to the office. The new figures represent approximately $330 million in additional assets and another 11,409 accounts compared with those totals.
Under the leadership of Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee, the @AZ_529 Education Savings Plan has increased assets under management by 96.9% to a new record high of $3.2 billion after 69 months of operation with 74,995 new accounts. | @AZTreasurerYeepic.twitter.com/mPXFB7rDQJ
— Office of the Arizona State Treasurer (@AZTreasury) August 18, 2026
AZ529 came under the administration of the Treasurer’s Office on Oct. 1, 2020, after then-Gov. Doug Ducey signed SB 1528, transferring administration of the program from the Arizona Commission for Postsecondary Education to the State Treasurer and establishing the State Board of Investment as trustee. The plan itself was created by the Legislature in 1997 and launched in 1999.
Two years after the transfer, the Treasurer’s Office reported that the plan had added 22,326 accounts and held approximately $1.67 billion in assets. At that time, assets had increased 3.1 percent since the Treasury took control of the program.
By January 2026, assets had risen 76.7 percent from the October 2020 level to $2.87 billion. The Treasurer’s Office said at the time that 63,586 new accounts had been opened during the first 63 months of Treasury administration.
The program allows parents, grandparents, and other account owners to invest money for a beneficiary’s education through tax-advantaged accounts. Funds may be used for qualified expenses including college and university costs, community college, vocational and trade programs, registered apprenticeships, and certain other educational expenses.
Arizona taxpayers may deduct contributions made to any qualifying state 529 plan from state taxable income, up to $2,000 per beneficiary for single filers and heads of household and $4,000 per beneficiary for married couples filing jointly. Earnings grow tax-free, while qualified withdrawals are exempt from federal and Arizona income taxes.
Families can begin saving with as little as $15 per month, depending on the plan provider. The program currently offers a direct-sold plan through Fidelity Investments and an advisor-sold plan through Goldman Sachs.
Federal changes have also expanded the ways some unused 529 funds can be handled. AZ529 beneficiaries may roll qualifying unused funds into the beneficiary’s Roth IRA, subject to federal requirements and a $35,000 lifetime limit.
The plan has received national recognition during its growth. In January, the Treasurer’s Office announced that Forbes named AZ529 one of six plans selected from 70 evaluated for its 2026 list. The program has also received a Silver rating from Morningstar for 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Yee, who is running for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction and serving her final year as state treasurer, has made expansion of the 529 program and financial-literacy outreach part of her office’s priorities. In her 2025 accomplishments report, the Treasurer’s Office said its outreach included communities across Arizona’s 15 counties, along with Spanish and Navajo-language materials promoting the education savings program.
