Libraries to Congress: Carve House Judiciary ECPA reform bill in stone now

 

The following statement was issued by the American Library Association upon passage by the House Judiciary Committee of the Chairman’s Substitute Amendment to the Email Privacy Act, H.R. 699.  It may be attributed to ALA President Sari Feldman:

 

"Passage today of the Email Privacy Act by the House Judiciary Committee is as important and welcome as it is overdue. Congress now can act to close a gaping, 30-year old hole in the constitutional privacy rights of all Americans.The bill approved today makes clear that the content of the all emails, texts, photos, cloud-stored documents and other electronic communications at the core of all of our digital lives can no longer be accessed by the government without a real search warrant.

 

We need swift action to finally carve these critical reforms into statutory stone.

 

On behalf of the tens of millions of Americans who depend upon libraries for their sole access to the internet, and all of our patrons, we urge the Speaker and Majority Leader to allow the more than 300 Members of the House who cosponsored the original Email Privacy Act to vote on the bill approved today without further delay, and call upon the Senate to immediately follow suit.

 

After waiting nearly 30 years, the American people deserve ECPA reform now."

 

 

The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 58,000 members in academic, public, school, government, and special libraries. The mission of the American Library Association is to provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.