House to vote on email bill:

America

Cornyn

The US House of Representatives was expected to vote on Wednesday to require law enforcement authorities to get a search warrant before asking technology companies to hand over old emails, with the bill’s Senate prospects unclear.

Under the Email Privacy Act, updating a decades-old law, authorities would have to get a warrant to access emails or other digital communications more than 180 days old. At present, agencies such as the US Justice Department and the US Securities and Exchange Commission only need a subpoena to seek such data from a service provider.

Supporters of the legislation say it is needed to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Technology companies and privacy advocates say this 30-year-old statute was written before the rise of the Internet and so is outdated.

The measure passed the House Judiciary Committee unanimously earlier this month after accruing 315 of a possible 435 sponsors, making it the most popular bill in the House.

More than a quarter of senators have endorsed similar legislation in the upper chamber, including No. 2 Republican John Cornyn.

But it was unclear if Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican with jurisdiction over the legislation, intends to move it forward during an election year. (RTRS)