Rep. Fitzgerald's NDO Fairness Act Passes House of Representatives

WASHINGTON, DC - Congressman Scott Fitzgerald's (WI-05) NDO Fairness Act, legislation aimed at restoring transparency, reinforcing constitutional rights, and ending the pattern of surveillance overreach, passed the House of Representatives unanimously today.

Earlier this year, Congressman Fitzgerald questioned former Special Counsel Jack Smith during a House Judiciary Committee hearing that focused on Smith's investigations and prosecutions of President Trump.

As mentioned by multiple committee members during the hearing, the unconstitutional subpoena of phone records for Members of Congress was a gross abuse of power. Not only did Smith's team fail to notify the Federal Judge that the subpoenas were for Members of Congress, but he also imposed a non-disclosure order, or NDO, prohibiting the phone companies from notifying Members of the search.

The NDO Fairness Act would require notification of a subpoena after 90 days, ensuring all Americans, not just Members of Congress, have a right to challenge the constitutionality of a subpoena.

"The government should not be able to secretly search Americans' private information and then prevent them from ever knowing it happened," said Congressman Fitzgerald. "The NDO Fairness Act restores fundamental safeguards against government overreach by ensuring Americans have the opportunity to learn when their information has been searched. I thank my colleagues for supporting this legislation, and I urge the Senate to act quickly to advance these critical protections."

BACKGROUND: The NDO Fairness Act reins in prosecutorial abuse and executive branch overreach by strengthening the standards prosecutors must meet when seeking to place non-disclosure orders (NDOs) on service providers. This bill will prevent federal prosecutors from using indefinite and often boilerplate secrecy orders to access third-party communications data. It will also ensure an individual is notified within 90 days when their data was searched and allow that individual to request a copy of any information disclosed.

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