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Email Search Warrant Provision Added to Spending Bill

By Anne L. Kim and JM Rieger

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Among the 12 annual spending bills that fund the federal government, the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill is generally one of the more contentious. But during a markup of the House’s fiscal 2015 version, there wasn’t any fight when it came to an amendment targeting a law that allows federal agencies to obtain emails older than 180 days without a search warrant. The amendment, offered by Kansas Republican Kevin Yoder would bar money in the bill (which applies only to fiscal 2015 and covers certain agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service) from being used to require email service providers to disclose contents of customer emails without a warrant. The panel adopted it by voice vote during Wednesday’s markup.

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