Sponsors (6)
Official title: Amend title 18, United States Code, to modify delayed notice requirements, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 15, 2026 by Christopher A. Coons · Last progress January 15, 2026
The bill strengthens investigators' ability to keep electronic-searches secret to protect prosecutions while adding some judicial and reporting safeguards, but it also creates substantial delays before targets learn of searches, risks chilling press and speech, and imposes costs on providers.
State and local law enforcement (and federal prosecutors) can delay or prevent notice of electronic records/orders to preserve investigations, reducing the chance that evidence is destroyed, witnesses intimidated, or suspects flee and thereby helping prosecutions succeed.
Courts are required to make written findings and narrowly tailor nondisclosure orders, increasing judicial oversight and reducing the risk of overly broad secrecy orders.
Providers retain the ability to challenge or seek modification of nondisclosure orders and may make limited disclosures (for example, to attorneys), which preserves some provider legal rights and limited avenues for contesting secrecy.
People whose communications or records are sought (including immigrants and taxpayers) can be kept unaware for months — and orders may be extended repeatedly or initially last up to a year for some offenses — delaying their ability to challenge government action or seek legal redress.
Broad nondisclosure authority risks chilling speech and press freedoms if orders cover news organizations or their sources, potentially suppressing reporting and source protection without timely notice.
Allowing nondisclosure in presumptive child-exploitation cases without mandatory court-written findings lowers judicial scrutiny in particularly sensitive prosecutions, increasing risk of prolonged secrecy and reduced accountability.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Tightens judicial standards and time limits for nondisclosure orders to electronic communications providers, requires written factual findings, and limits secrecy to 90 days (or 1 year for child sexual offenses).
Amends federal law to change when a government investigator can get a court order telling an electronic communications or remote computing provider not to tell anyone that the government has served a warrant, order, or subpoena. It requires the government to state whether the target knows about the process and whether they are suspected of a crime, limits nondisclosure orders to specified time periods (longer for child sexual offenses), and requires courts to make written findings showing specific, articulable facts that nondisclosure is necessary and narrowly tailored before issuing or extending an order. The court must also review the underlying warrant, order, or subpoena. (One provision summary was truncated in the source text.)