I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1174 
To amend title 18, United States Code, to safeguard data stored abroad 
from improper government access, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 27, 2015 
Mr. MARINO (for himself, Ms. DELBENE, and Mr. AMODEI) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To amend title 18, United States Code, to safeguard data 
stored abroad from improper government access, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Law Enforcement Ac-
cess to Data Stored Abroad Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Electronic Communications Privacy Act 
of 1986 (Public Law 99–508; 100 Stat. 1848) (re-
ferred to in this section as ‘‘ECPA’’) was intended 
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to protect the privacy of electronic communications 
stored with providers of electronic communications 
services and remote computing services, while bal-
ancing the legitimate needs of law enforcement to 
access records stored by such providers. 
(2) To strike this balance, ECPA authorized 
governmental entities to obtain certain categories of 
communications data from providers using estab-
lished, pre-existing forms of process—warrants and 
subpoenas. It also created a new form of court 
order, in section 2703(d) of title 18, United States 
Code, that governmental entities could use to obtain 
additional types of communications data. 
(3) It has been well established that courts in 
the United States lack the power to issue warrants 
authorizing extraterritorial searches and seizures, 
and neither ECPA nor subsequent amendments ex-
tended the warrant power of courts in the United 
States beyond the territorial reach of the United 
States. 
(4) Nevertheless, Congress also recognizes the 
legitimate needs of law enforcement agencies in the 
United States to obtain, through lawful process, 
electronic communications relevant to criminal inves-
tigations related to United States persons wherever 
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that content may be stored. Therefore, this Act au-
thorizes the use of search warrants extraterritorially 
only where the Government seeks to obtain the con-
tents of electronic communications belonging to a 
United States person. 
SEC. 3. SCOPE AND CLARIFICATION OF WARRANT RE-
QUIREMENT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 121 of title 18, United 
States Code, is amended— 
(1) in section 2702(a), by amending paragraph 
(3) to read as follows: 
‘‘(3) a provider of remote computing service or 
electronic communication service to the public shall 
not knowingly divulge to any governmental entity 
the contents of any communication described in sec-
tion 2703(a), or any record or other information 
pertaining to a subscriber or customer of such serv-
ice.’’; 
(2) in section 2703— 
(A) by striking subsections (a) and (b) and 
inserting the following: 
‘‘(a) CONTENTS OF WIRE OR ELECTRONIC COMMU-
NICATION
IN ELECTRONIC STORAGE.—A governmental 
entity may require the disclosure by a provider of elec-
tronic communication service or remote computing service 
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of the contents of a wire or electronic communication that 
is in electronic storage with or otherwise stored, held, or 
maintained by the provider only pursuant to a warrant 
issued using the procedures described in the Federal Rules 
of Criminal Procedure (or, in the case of a State court, 
issued using State warrant procedures) by a court of com-
petent jurisdiction. Subject to subsection (b), a warrant 
issued pursuant to this subsection may be used to require 
the disclosure of contents of a wire or electronic commu-
nication that are in the provider’s electronic storage within 
the United States or otherwise stored, held, or maintained 
within the United States by the provider. 
‘‘(b) WARRANT REQUIREMENTS.—A warrant issued 
under subsection (a) may require the disclosure of the con-
tents of a wire or electronic communication, regardless of 
where such contents may be in electronic storage or other-
wise stored, held, or maintained by the provider, if the 
account-holder whose contents are sought by the warrant 
is a United States person. A court issuing a warrant pur-
suant to this subsection, on a motion made promptly by 
the service provider, shall modify or vacate such warrant 
if the court finds that the warrant would require the pro-
vider of an electronic communications or remote com-
puting service to violate the laws of a foreign country.’’; 
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