Polis responds to House Judiciary Committee Hearing on His Email Privacy Act

Statement

Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) released the following statement today following the House Judiciary Committee's hearing on H.R. 699, the Email Privacy Act, which would require the government to obtain a warrant before searching Americans' emails. With 304 cosponsors, the bipartisan bill, which is sponsored by Polis and Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-KS), is the most popular legislation in Congress not to receive a vote on the House floor.

"Today's hearing reinforced the overwhelming support the Email Privacy Act has gained across the technology sector, among civil liberties advocates, and from lawmakers on all sides of the political spectrum. It simply makes no sense that our homes, cars, and mailboxes are protected from unwarranted government searches but the government can sift through our email inboxes with impunity.

"This morning we also heard from federal officials who are asking for special carve-outs that would allow federal agencies to continue to subpoena Americans' private emails without a warrant based on probable cause. The far-reaching support for the Email Privacy Act as written both inside and outside Congress suggests that, save for a handful of government bureaucrats, there is no support for undermining the reforms in the bill in this way. Moreover, there is simply no constitutional basis for exempting digital correspondence from our privacy laws.

"The Email Privacy Act is a simple, bipartisan, and broadly popular way to protect Americans from warrantless government intrusion when they go online. The Judiciary Committee should favorably report this bill so that it can finally receive a vote on the House floor, where it will pass with overwhelming support from both parties."

Because of a loophole included in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, the government is not required to get a warrant in order to access emails stored on third-party servers if the emails are older than 180 days. The Email Privacy Act eliminates that loophole and brings the protections afforded to Americans' digital correspondence into alignment with the protections afforded to paper mail.

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