Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 7491 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 7491 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. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES February 11, 2026 Ms. Dean of Pennsylvania (for herself, Mr. Jeffries, Ms. Lee of Florida, and Mr. Bacon) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL 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. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act''. SEC. 2. ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN AN INCARCERATED PERSON AND THE PERSON'S ATTORNEY. (a) Prohibition on Monitoring.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall create a program or system, or modify any program or system that exists on the date of enactment of this Act, through which an incarcerated person sends or receives an electronic communication, to exclude from monitoring the contents of any privileged electronic communication. In the case that the Attorney General creates a program or system in accordance with this subsection, the Attorney General shall, upon implementing such system, discontinue using any program or system that exists on the date of enactment of this Act through which an incarcerated person sends or receives a privileged electronic communication, exce