Rep. Graves’ Email Privacy Act Gaining Broad Support

Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA-14), along with Reps. Kevin Yoder (R-KS-03) and Jared Polis (D-CO-02), announced recently continued and growing support for H.R. 1852, the Email Privacy Act. Since introducing the legislation last week, Rep. Polis joined the effort as the lead Democrat sponsor and worked with Reps. Graves and Yoder to gather 75 cosponsors for the bill. The congressmen are continuing aggressive outreach efforts to build broad bipartisan support in the House.

“With the latest concerns over abuse of government power, members are supporting the Email Privacy Act as a vehicle to ensure their constituents’ right to privacy. The American people deserve to have their right to email privacy, and the government’s limitations, clearly defined,” said Graves.

“Despite what the IRS or other government agencies believe, Americans do have an expectation of privacy with their emails,” said Rep. Yoder. “I’m encouraged by the support we’re receiving for the Email Privacy Act from colleagues on both sides of the aisle. The overwhelming support is not surprising because this is common sense legislation that protects the private emails of Americans.”

“Updating our digital communications privacy laws in a comprehensive way is long overdue. I am pleased to support this bill along with Representatives Yoder and Graves, which will provide consumers with additional privacy protections for all their emails and information remotely stored, such as on social networks,” said Polis.

H.R. 1852 updates the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (EPCA) to improve privacy protections for electronic communications information stored or maintained by third-party service providers. Technology has changed dramatically since 1986, the last time Congress dealt with federal email privacy laws. The Email Privacy Act is the House companion to S. 607, a bill from Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Mike Lee (R-UT) that cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee last month.