Week ahead: Senate tries again on email privacy

The Senate Judiciary Committee is taking another stab at passing email privacy legislation that got held up by a series of controversial amendments last month.

The legislation is on the committee calendar for Thursday, along with two other bills. The email privacy bill would ensure that law enforcement obtains a warrant before forcing a technology company to hand over a customer’s emails, no matter how old the communications.

{mosads}In April, the House approved a similar bill by unanimous consent. And the Senate committee planned to take up nearly identical language last month. But a series of amendments filed the night ahead of the vote caused the sponsors of the bill to seek a delay as they worked out differences.

The state of negotiations is unclear, since most lawmakers have been in their home states for the Memorial Day recess.

The most worrisome amendment was filed by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). The Senate’s No. 2 Republican offered a proposal to expand the government’s use of National Security Letters, a search tool that gives the FBI power to compel private institutions to disclose information. The amendment would allow law enforcement to obtain email records — including name, address, phone number, login history and IP address — without a warrant if they are relevant to a terror or intelligence investigation.

Another amendment offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) would force technology companies to hand over a customer’s emails without a warrant in an emergency, when delay could cause “danger of death or serious physical injury.” Technology companies have lobbied hard against the provision, saying the current voluntary language works well in practice.

On the other end of the Capitol, on Thursday, the House Oversight Committee is digging into the Census Bureau’s plan for the 2020 count. The bureau has planned a number of IT updates, including an online response option, to reduce costs by billions of dollars. The Government Accountability Office has made a number of recommendations to speed up testing.

On Monday, the Republican National Committee is reportedly holding a meeting with lobbyists to discuss tech policy in the party platform. Per Politico, attendees include the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the Information Technology Industry Council, the Consumer Technology Association, and the software trade group BSA.

Outside of Washington, many tech observers will be watching the California primary results on Tuesday. Candidates from both parties have been making swings through the state, including a trip to Silicon Valley by Donald Trump. Trump has the nomination sealed up, and Hillary Clinton is hoping to increase her delegate lead over Bernie Sanders, though polls there have narrowed recently.

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