Yoder, Polis Reintroduce Popular Email Privacy Act Updating 30-Year-Old ECPA

Reps. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., and Jared Polis, D-Colo., reintroduced legislation Monday updating the three-decade-old the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) that unanimously passed the House last year, but stalled in the Senate. The bill, which had more than 300 co-sponsors last year and wide support among privacy and technology organizations, would close a loophole in ECPA that currently allows agencies to search people's emails stored by a third party such as Google and Yahoo without a warrant if those emails are more than 180 days old. "After the unanimous passage of our bill last year, I see no reason why we can’t get this done right away,” said Yoder in a joint news release with Polis. “Let’s give the Senate ample time to act, because more than 30 years has been long enough for Congress to wait on this." In April, the House passed the bill 419-0 (see 1604270067), but its main supporters in the Senate, Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Pat Leahy, D-Vt., withdrew the legislation after Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced a controversial amendment that would widen FBI access to Americans' sensitive data online (see 1606090007). Lee and Leahy said they couldn't "in good conscience" include that amendment. The SEC, among other agencies, expressed concern about the Email Privacy Act because its commissioners said the agency wouldn't be able to get criminal warrants as required by the legislation, hindering investigations (see 1605250022 and 1511300009). "As a result of Congress’s failure to keep pace with technological developments, every American is at risk of having their emails warrantlessly searched by government agencies," said Polis. He said the legislation would protect people's "Fourth Amendment privacy rights, whether they’re communicating through pen-and-paper mail or email." The release said the bill's other co-sponsors are House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich.; Doug Collins, R-Ga.; Judy Chu, D-Calif.; Suzan DelBene, D-Calif.; Will Hurd, R-Texas; Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.; and Ted Poe, R-Texas.