Senate Judiciary Committee Plans ECPA, CALEA Updates
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he hopes to strike a balance between defending against cyberattacks and protecting privacy online. Speaking Tuesday at the Newseum, Judiciary Committee Chairman Leahy said he will direct his committee to modernize the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). He said he also wants to take up intellectual property theft and finish cybersecurity legislation.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Balance is critical for updates to ECPA and CALEA, Leahy said. “I want our security agencies to have the tools needed to keep us safe from cyberthreats, but I also want our federal privacy laws to keep pace with advancing technology,” he said. “This is not an easy balance, but I think it can be done.” On modernizing CALEA, Leahy said lawmakers must weigh Americans’ privacy rights against law enforcement needs “to gather valuable, court-ordered surveillance information to keep the nation safe.” Judiciary also plans to examine websites’ tracking of users’ online activities, he said.
The committee will continue looking for ways to stop intellectual property theft, Leahy said. Patent overhaul is a top priority, he said. “Our intellectual property-based businesses are among the most productive in our economy, they are among our best employers,” and they are a major source of export dollars, he said. “We can’t stand by and see them ravaged. We can’t have American consumers subjected to counterfeits.” Leahy said his counterpart on the House Judiciary Committee, Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, agrees.
"Cybersecurity legislation has to move ahead,” Leahy said. “We are losing billions of dollars because of the fraud on the Internet,” especially from overseas, he said. The senator said he’s working with others in government and with industry and consumers “to get the best bill possible.” Leahy said he wants a bill that can be updated regularly, since the types of fraud and attacks are evolving.
Congress also must extend parts of the Patriot Act that is scheduled to expire in February, Leahy said. A provision on “roving wiretaps” allows law enforcement to use one surveillance order to cover tapping of all modes of communications used by the target, including phone lines, cellphones and the Internet.
Leahy said he believes in the First Amendment but thinks WikiLeaks has been irresponsible. “I believe in an open government, but I don’t believe in putting good men and women around the world in danger of their lives.” The government is also to blame for leaks of sensitive data, he said. “Why in the heck do we have all this material for a private first class” to download “onto Lady Gaga CDs?” he asked. “Who made that dumb decision?"
Self-restraint by citizens and media is needed to curb incendiary language that can lead to violence like the shooting in Tucson, Leahy said. “The printed page, the radio microphone, the televised image, the TV ad, the blog posting and the Twitter feed all have the power to inspire, to motivate and to inform,” he said. “But they also have the power to inflame and incite.”