ECPA Reform Passes the House -- Unanimously

Paul Rosenzweig
Wednesday, April 27, 2016, 4:41 PM

As I've previously written, the Congress has been considering updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The Act, first adopted in 1986, does not have a warrant requirement for government access to the content of older, stored email. I have testified in favor of modernizing ECPA to remove this historical oddity. Today, the House unanimously passed the Email Privacy Act (H.R. 699) today by a vote of 419-0.

Meet The Authors

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

Subscribe to Lawfare

As I've previously written, the Congress has been considering updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The Act, first adopted in 1986, does not have a warrant requirement for government access to the content of older, stored email. I have testified in favor of modernizing ECPA to remove this historical oddity. Today, the House unanimously passed the Email Privacy Act (H.R. 699) today by a vote of 419-0.

Action now moves to the Senate where Senators Mike Lee and Patrick Leahy have introduced a similar measure.

I think it says almost everything you need to know about the possibility of swift Congressional action in this space that the first such proposal to revise ECPA was introduced 3 years ago.

Back to Top
Paul Rosenzweig

Paul Rosenzweig

@RosenzweigP
Read More
Paul Rosenzweig is the founder of Red Branch Consulting PLLC, a homeland security consulting company and a Senior Advisor to The Chertoff Group. Mr. Rosenzweig formerly served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy in the Department of Homeland Security. He is a Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University, a Senior Fellow in the Tech, Law & Security program at American University, and a Board Member of the Journal of National Security Law and Policy.

Subscribe to Lawfare