Sponsors (2)
The bill increases judicial oversight and post-disclosure transparency for government nondisclosure (gag) orders—giving providers, affected individuals, and Congress more ability to see and challenge secrecy—while still permitting significant delays, some expanded secrecy in sensitive cases, and procedures that may burden providers or risk exposing investigative details.
Customers/subscribers (broadly: internet users) will receive post-expiration notice of disclosures within 5 business days and can obtain disclosed records on request within 180 days, increasing transparency and the ability to seek redress.
Service providers (e.g., tech companies and financial institutions) can challenge nondisclosure orders and obtain an automatic stay of disclosure while the challenge is pending, protecting them from being forced to disclose immediately and preserving their ability to litigate gag orders.
Courts are required to issue written findings narrowly tailoring nondisclosure orders and to consider less-restrictive alternatives, adding judicial oversight intended to protect notice rights and constrain overbroad secrecy.
Named customers/subscribers can be kept unaware of government searches for up to 90 days (and up to 1 year in child-exploitation cases), delaying individuals' ability to challenge searches or remedy harms.
Mandatory sharing of underlying warrants/orders upon expiration with limited redaction protections could expose sensitive investigative details, sources, or methods if courts do not permit adequate redactions, risking investigative integrity and safety.
Providers face new operational and legal burdens from narrow disclosure/preservation requirements and from defending challenges in court, which could increase costs, compliance burdens, and litigation for tech and financial companies.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced November 17, 2025 by Scott Fitzgerald · Last progress November 17, 2025
Creates a detailed statutory process for courts to issue nondisclosure (delayed-notice) orders when the government uses the criminal investigative authorities under 18 U.S.C. § 2703. The bill sets required content for applications, strict judicial standards and written findings, maximum initial durations (90 days for most investigations; up to 1 year in child sexual exploitation cases or equivalent), procedures for 90-day extensions, and rules for provider notification, limited disclosures, and post-expiration notice to customers/subscribers. Adds obligations for providers and courts (including mandatory written findings and required inclusion of the underlying warrant/order/subpoena with the nondisclosure order), a 14-day duty to notify the court of material changes, an opportunity for providers to be heard with an automatic stay of disclosure while challenging an order, constraints on redaction and permitted limited disclosures, and a DOJ annual report (district-by-district, consistent with national-security constraints) on use and outcomes of these delayed-notice orders.