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H.R. 7491 119th Congress House

Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act

Official title: To regulate monitoring of electronic communications between an incarcerated person in a Bureau of Prisons facility and that person's attorney or other legal representative, and for other purposes.

Introduced: February 11, 2026 Introduced by: Madeleine Dean Democratic · Pennsylvania See on congress.gov
Crime and Law Enforcement
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 Everywhere this bill has been 2 steps
Introduced
In committee
Reported out
Passed House
Passed Senate
To President
Became law
Feb 11, 2026
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Feb 11, 2026
Introduced in House
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What's happening now February 11, 2026

Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

 Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act

This bill prohibits the Department of Justice from monitoring the contents of a privileged electronic communication between an incarcerated person and his or her legal representative.

 Bill text 1 version

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

 Committees of jurisdiction 1
 Lobbying activity 3

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

Bodies those filers lobbied

A filing lists the bills it worked on and the parts of government it contacted in separate sections, so these are the bodies those filers named anywhere in the filing, not a per-bill breakdown.

 Cosponsors 3
All 3 Democratic 1 Republican 2
R
Bacon, Don
Nebraska · Feb 11, 2026
 D
Jeffries, Hakeem S.
New York · Feb 11, 2026
 R
Lee, Laurel M.
Florida · Feb 11, 2026
Cite this page click to expand
APA
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 7491: Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-7491/
MLA
"H.R. 7491: Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-7491/.
Bluebook (legal)
H.R. 7491, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-7491/.
Markdown link
[H.R. 7491: Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-7491/)
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