[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8508]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            USA FREEDOM ACT

  (Mr. YODER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. YODER. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the President signed into law the 
USA Freedom Act. It is a bill I oppose because I believe it continues 
to allow unwarranted intrusions into the innocent lives of Americans in 
contradiction to the vision of our Founders and our Constitution.
  But what is most important to remember about this debate is that even 
with the reforms in the USA Freedom Act, a provision of law in the 
Electronic Communications Privacy Act, on the books since 1986, still 
allows government investigators to read the emails, texts, and 
information stored in the cloud or on any server of all Americans, at 
any time, without a warrant, without probable cause, and without any 
due process.
  Our Federal law gives digital communication little to no protections 
under the Fourth Amendment, regardless of the reforms signed into law 
yesterday.
  A lot has changed in email communication since 1986, and that is why 
we must pass the Email Privacy Act, a broad bipartisan bill with over 
270 cosponsors which would give email, digital communication, the same 
Fourth Amendment protections as paper mail or letters on our desks.
  Mr. Speaker, let's pass this legislation. Let's pass H.R. 699, and 
let's assure the American people that government has moved into the 
21st century and not forgotten the Constitution along the way.

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