Labrador Backs Bipartisan Bill Protecting Email Privacy

Press Release

Rep. Raúl Labrador, R-Idaho, joined a unanimous House in approving long overdue reforms of U.S. law protecting the privacy of electronic information, including stored emails, texts and instant messages.

Labrador is an original cosponsor of the Email Privacy Act, which passed the House 419-0 on Wednesday. H.R. 699 reforms the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 and moves to the Senate. Under the 1986 law, local, state and federal agencies may order Internet service providers to surrender electronic records older than 180 days by simply issuing an administrative subpoena.

The Email Privacy Act closes that loophole and requires a probable cause warrant from a judge before providing email and other electronic records.

"When the 1986 law was passed, few Americans used email, texting hadn't been invented and Google was 12 years from opening," Labrador said. "Now, 232 million Americans email at least once a month and 207 million use smartphones. In modernizing this area of the law, the House bill strikes a fair balance between the guarantees of liberty in the Fourth Amendment and the needs of law enforcement.

"The Email Privacy Act also is good for America's innovation economy," Labrador added. "American competitiveness depends on free markets and our Constitutional guarantees of individual liberty. These reforms are vital to continued growth in technology and cloud computing and I urge the Senate to take up H.R. 699 as soon as possible."

The House resisted efforts to exempt law enforcement and regulators from warrant and certain notice requirements, provisions that would have undermined the bill by expanding unchecked government surveillance.

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