[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10320]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             SPYING AND SNOOPING BY GOVERNMENT ON AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, like most Americans, I store a lot on 
my computer and on my phone: family photographs, personal calendars, 
emails, schedules, and even weekend to-do lists, or, as my wife calls 
them, honey-do lists. But this information stored on a phone like the 
one I have here is not private from the prying, spying eyes of 
government.
  Most Americans have no idea that Big Brother can snoop on tweets, g-
chats, texts, Instagrams, and even emails. Anything that is stored in 
the cloud is available to be spied on by government, as long as it is 
older than 180 days.
  Now, why is that? Well, it goes back to the outdated Electronic 
Communications Privacy Act of 1986. That act protects the privacy of 
emails that are less than 6 months old. 1986, those were the days 
before the World Wide Web even existed. Many of us--I do--have staff 
that weren't even born before 1986.
  We stored letters in folders, filing cabinets, and desk drawers. No 
one knew what the cloud was because the cloud didn't even exist. There 
was not any broadband, no social media, no tablets, or smartphones.
  The relatively few people who used email--and I remember when email 
was invented--never imagined keeping emails longer than it took to send 
it or read it. So it was perfectly reasonable that, in 1986, lawmakers 
tried to protect emails, but only did so for 180 days. Who would keep 
anything online for longer than 6 months? Well, three decades later, we 
know. Everybody stores their emails.
  Under current law, every email and text, every Google doc and 
Facebook message, every photograph of our vacation, is subject to 
government inspection without a warrant, without probable cause, and 
without our knowledge if it is older than 6 months. That is an invasion 
of privacy.
  Constitutional protection for 6 months only? That is nonsense.
  What is worse, some government agencies don't want the law changed. 
The Securities and Exchange Commission is lobbying to keep the law on 
the books. Why does the SEC want to maintain this spying ability? Well, 
I suspect they want to be able to read our personal financial records 
and communications without the constitutional protection of a search 
warrant and without our knowledge. Spying on the citizens by government 
sounds like conduct reminiscent of the old Soviet Union, to me.
  The SEC is not the only government agency that has access to emails 
over 6 months old.

                              {time}  1045

  Any government agency can go and confiscate emails older than 6 
months, without a warrant, without probable cause, and without 
knowledge of the person. This is a clear violation of the Constitution, 
in my opinion.
  Mr. Speaker, if you go back to snail mail and you write a letter and 
you put a stamp on it and you put it in the mailbox, that letter floats 
around the fruited plain until it ends up in somebody's possession. 
Government generally cannot seize that letter without a warrant and go 
in and snoop around and look in there and see what it is.
  Email is a form of communication. Why should government have the 
ability to snoop around in our personal emails? They don't have that 
right, even though they have the ability.
  Whatever our political disagreements, on both sides, most Americans, 
I believe, share the conviction that privacy is protected by the Fourth 
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: to protect us from unreasonable 
searches and seizures from government; protect us in our persons, 
houses, papers, and personal effects.
  Government agents can't raid homes or tap into phones or read mail 
without showing a judge they have probable cause that a crime was 
committed; then a search warrant must be obtained.
  Mr. Speaker, I was a judge for 22 years in Texas, and officers would 
come to me with search warrants, and I would read and see if they had 
probable cause. If they did, I would sign a warrant. That is what the 
Constitution requires before you can go snoop around and spy on 
Americans. Why should our possessions and communications be less 
private just because they are online?
  Well, they shouldn't be. That is why I have teamed up with 
Representative Zoe Lofgren, on the other side, and lots of other 
Members of Congress in both parties, to introduce legislation to update 
the outdated ECPA law. There is also a bill in the Senate that enjoys 
the same support.
  Our bills restore ECPA's original purpose, to protect privacy in the 
ways we live, communicate, learn, and transact business and recreate 
today. This legislation would protect the sacred right of privacy from 
the ever-increasing spying government trolls in America.
  Our mission is simple: extend constitutional protections to 
communications and records that Americans store online for any amount 
of time. There is no need to delay. The bill is written. The votes are 
there. Let's pass the legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, technology may change, but the Constitution remains the 
same. Thomas Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence:

       Government is created to protect our rights.

  It is about time we make government protect the right of privacy, 
rather than violate the right of privacy.
  And that is just the way it is.

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