Email Privacy Act

The Email Privacy Act is a bill introduced in the United States Congress. The bipartisan proposed federal law was sponsored by Representative Kevin Yoder, a Republican from Kansas, and then-Representative Jared Polis, a Democrat of Colorado. The law is designed to update and reform existing online communications law, specifically the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986.[1][2][3]

In the 113th Congress (2013–15), the bill never made it out of subcommittee. In the 114th Congress (2015–17), the bill was unanimously passed by the House, but was derailed in the Senate following a series of weakening amendments offered by Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate Majority Whip. In the 115th Congress (2017–19) and 116th Congress (2019–21), the legislation passed the House, but failed to receive a vote in the Senate.

  1. ^ Tummarello, Kate (June 18, 2014). "Bill requiring warrants for email searches hits magic number in House". The Hill. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  2. ^ Wise, Lindsay. "Government wonders: What's in your old emails?". McClatchy. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  3. ^ Jaycox, Mark (January 23, 2015). "Seventy Public Interest Organizations and Companies Urge Congress to Update Email Privacy Law". Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved February 11, 2015.