HR-6048 — NDO Fairness Act of 2025

YourVoice.Now Summary

Civil LibertiesTransparency & Accountability

Secret gag orders on your email provider would face a 90-day limit — and you would be told once they end.

Civil Liberties

Notice when the government secretly takes your account data

When the gag order runs out, the government would have to deliver a copy of the warrant and explain the inquiry. You could also ask for a copy of what your provider turned over.

Court limits on secret gag orders — 90 days, not open-ended

Gag orders would run 90 days for most investigations. Each renewal would be capped at another 90 days and would need a fresh written ruling from the judge.

Proof a judge must see before granting a gag order

A judge could grant the order only after written findings that notice would likely endanger someone, cause flight, destroy evidence, scare witnesses, or wreck the case. The order would also have to be as narrow as possible.

Your provider's right to fight a gag order in court

Your email or cloud company could ask the judge to change or cancel the order. Filing that request would pause the handover of your data for 72 hours, unless the judge extends or ends the pause sooner.

Government must tell the judge if the gag's reason changes — 14 days

If the need for the order changes in a big way, the government would have 14 days to tell the court. The judge would then look at the order again and narrow or cancel it.

Notice protections in child exploitation cases — up to one year

In child sexual abuse cases, the judge could presume secrecy is needed and skip the written ruling. Those orders could run a full year instead of 90 days.

Transparency & Accountability

Public yearly report on secret data orders

The Attorney General would publish yearly numbers for each federal court district: how many people were targeted, how many gag orders were sought, and how many judges granted or denied. The report would also count the arrests and convictions these investigations produced.

Public count of gag orders aimed at journalists

The same report would have to break out how many of these orders touched members of the news media or First Amendment activity.

More about this bill

The government can make your email or cloud provider hand over your data. It can also order the company to stay quiet about it. Those gag orders could no longer run open-ended. Most would last 90 days. A judge would have to put the reasons in writing first. Your provider could ask the judge to cancel the order. That challenge would pause the handover of your data for 72 hours. Once the gag ends, the government would have to reach you within five business days, by at least two methods. You would get a copy of the warrant. If you asked within 180 days, you could also see what was handed over. Cases about child sexual abuse could stay secret for up to a year. The Justice Department would post a yearly count of these orders.

Congressional Summary

Congress's official summary of this bill still describes an earlier version of the text, so we have left it out here. You can read it on Congress.gov.

Congress.gov →

Legislative Subjects

Business recordsComputers and information technologyCongressional oversightConsumer affairsCriminal investigation, prosecution, interrogationInternet, web applications, social mediaJudicial procedure and administrationRight of privacyTelephone and wireless communication

Details

Congress: 119th
Chamber: House
Status: summarized
Action: Passed House
Action Date: 2026-08-31
Date Added: 2026-08-26
Source: Congress.gov →

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