Political Quotes

“The passage of the Email Privacy Act is long overdue. The fact that the law that governs the government access to emails dates from 1986, before email was really a mass phenomena, is a glaring loophole in our privacy protection laws. 1986 was a time when we used floppy disks to store our information, when, if any internet existed at all, it was just a few people at research universities communicating with another. It was far from a mass phenomena. Today, this bill catches up with the reasonable expectation that consumers already have that their emails are private. Just as Americans view their phone conversations as private, their physical letters through the mail private, Americans view their emails the same way. Yet, until we close this loophole, the government maintains access, without a warrant, to emails that are older than 6 months in a way that they do not allow access to your old personal letters filed away in a filing cabinet in your office. They don't allow access to old voice mails, and emails are, frankly, no different. The Email Privacy Act requires that Americans have the same legal protection for our emails as we do for paper letters, faxes, and other types of communication that may remain sitting around. Updating this law simply aligns the law to the digital and physical world. It has taken too long already. Today is a major step forward. I would like to highlight the House has already passed this bill unanimously last session.…”