I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5323 
To amend title 18, United States Code, to safeguard data stored abroad, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 25, 2016 
Mr. MARINO (for himself and Ms. DELBENE) 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, 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 ‘‘International Commu-
nications Privacy Act’’. 
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF 
PURPOSE. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Electronic Communications Privacy Act 
of 1986 (Public Law 99–508; 100 Stat. 1848) (re-
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ferred to in this section as ‘‘ECPA’’) was intended 
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) Congress recognizes the legitimate needs of 
law enforcement agencies in the United States to ob-
tain, through lawful process, electronic communica-
tions relevant to criminal investigations, as well as 
the privacy interests of citizens of foreign countries. 
Therefore, where the Government seeks to obtain 
the contents of electronic communications of foreign 
citizens located outside of the United States, this 
Act authorizes the use of search warrants only if the 
foreign government does not have a Law Enforce-
ment Cooperation Agreement with the United States 
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or, if it does have such a Law Enforcement Coopera-
tion Agreement, the foreign government does not ob-
ject to disclosure. 
SEC. 3. EXTENSION 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 
of the contents of a wire or electronic communication that 
is in electronic storage with or otherwise stored, held, or 
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maintained by the provider, regardless of where such con-
tents may be in electronic storage or otherwise stored, 
held, or maintained, 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. An application for a warrant under 
this section shall include a full and complete statement 
of the facts and circumstances relied upon and the inves-
tigative steps taken to ascertain the nationality and loca-
tion of the subscriber or customer whose contents are 
sought by the warrant. Any such warrant may be used 
to require the disclosure of contents of a wire or electronic 
communication only if the court finds that— 
‘‘(1) the governmental entity has taken all rea-
sonable steps to establish the nationality and loca-
tion of the subscriber or customer whose contents 
are sought; and 
‘‘(2) at the time the warrant application is 
made— 
‘‘(A) there are reasonable grounds to be-
lieve that the subscriber or customer whose con-
tents are sought by the warrant is— 
‘‘(i) a United States person; 
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‘‘(ii) physically located within the 
United States; 
‘‘(iii) a national of or located in a for-
eign country or countries where any of 
those countries has an applicable Law En-
forcement Cooperation Agreement with the 
United States (or in the case where the 
warrant application is made on behalf of a 
foreign government pursuant to a Law En-
forcement Cooperation Agreement with the 
United States, any of those countries has 
an applicable Law Enforcement Coopera-
tion Agreement with the requesting foreign 
government) and the Central Authority for 
each such country with such a Law En-
forcement Cooperation Agreement provides 
written certification that the disclosure 
may be had or does not object to the dis-
closure within 60 days after formal sub-
mission of a request for such certification; 
or 
‘‘(iv) a national of and located in a 
foreign country or countries where none of 
those countries have an applicable Law 
Enforcement Cooperation Agreement with 
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would not comply with the requirements of this sec-
tion.’’; 
(B) in subsection (d), in the first sen-
tence— 
(i) by striking ‘‘(b) or’’; 
(ii) by striking ‘‘the contents of a wire 
or electronic communication, or’’; and 
(iii) by striking ‘‘sought, are’’ and in-
serting ‘‘sought are’’; and 
(C) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(h) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-
tion or in section 2702 shall be construed to limit the au-
thority of a governmental entity to use an administrative 
subpoena authorized under a Federal or State statute or 
to use a Federal or State grand jury, trial, or civil dis-
covery subpoena to— 
‘‘(1) require an originator, addressee, or in-
tended recipient of an electronic communication to 
disclose the contents of the electronic communication 
to the governmental entity; or 
‘‘(2) require an entity that provides electronic 
communication services to the officers, directors, em-
ployees, or agents of the entity (for the purpose of 
carrying out their duties) to disclose the contents of 
an electronic communication to or from an officer, 
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director, employee, or agent of the entity to a gov-
ernmental entity, if the electronic communication is 
held, stored, or maintained on an electronic commu-
nications system owned or operated by the entity.’’; 
(3) in section 2704(a)(1), by striking ‘‘section 
2703(b)(2)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 2703’’; and 
(4) in section 2711— 
(A) in paragraph (3)(B) by striking ‘‘war-
rants; and’’ and inserting ‘‘warrants;’’; 
(B) in paragraph (4) by striking ‘‘thereof.’’ 
and inserting ‘‘thereof;’’; and 
(C) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(5) the term ‘United States person’ means a 
citizen of the United States or an alien lawfully ad-
mitted for permanent residence (as defined in sec-
tion 101(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act 
(8 U.S.C. 1101(a))); 
‘‘(6) the term ‘Law Enforcement Cooperation 
Agreement’ means— 
‘‘(A) a mutual legal assistance treaty, mu-
tual legal assistance agreement, adherence to 
the Convention on Cybercrime, signed Novem-
ber 21, 2001; or 
‘‘(B) an executive agreement or treaty be-
tween the United States and one or more coun-
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tries designed to establish a reciprocal process 
for notifying and obtaining the consent of the 
other country or countries in order to obtain 
the contents of electronic communication pursu-
ant to section 2703(a)(1)(A)(iii), provided that 
the Attorney General shall maintain a list of 
countries with which the United States has 
such agreements and shall submit such list, as 
and when amended, to the Committees on the 
Judiciary and Foreign Relations of the United 
States Senate and the Committees on the Judi-
ciary and Foreign Affairs of the United States 
House of Representatives, and shall make it 
available to the public; 
‘‘(7) the term ‘Central Authority’ means the 
agency, department, office, or authority of a country 
responsible for administering a particular Law En-
forcement Cooperation Agreement between that 
country and another; and 
‘‘(8) the term ‘national of a foreign country’ 
means a citizen, a lawful resident, or an entity orga-
nized under the laws of a foreign jurisdiction.’’. 
(b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act 
or the amendments made by this Act shall be construed 
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to expand the investigative authority of any governmental 
entity. 
SEC. 4. MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE TREATY REFORMS. 
(a) MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE TREATY TRANS-
PARENCY AND EFFICIENCY.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney 
General shall establish— 
(A) a form for use by a foreign govern-
ment filing a mutual legal assistance treaty re-
quest (referred to in this section as an ‘‘MLAT 
request’’), which shall— 
(i) be made available on the website of 
the Department of Justice; and 
(ii) require sufficient information and 
be susceptible for use by a foreign govern-
ment to provide all the information nec-
essary for the MLAT request; 
(B) an online docketing system for all 
MLAT requests, which shall allow a foreign 
government to track the status of an MLAT re-
quest filed by the foreign government; and 
(C) a process through which certified ap-
proval may be sought for disclosure pursuant to 
warrants issued under section 2703(a). 
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(2) ANNUAL
PUBLICATION.—Beginning not 
later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this 
Act, and each year thereafter, the Attorney General 
shall publish on the website of the Department of 
Justice statistics on— 
(A)(i) the number of MLAT requests made 
by the Department of Justice to foreign govern-
ments for the purpose of obtaining the contents 
of an electronic communication or other infor-
mation or records from a provider of electronic 
communications or remote computing services; 
and 
(ii) the average length of time taken by 
foreign governments to process the MLAT re-
quests described in clause (i); and 
(B)(i) the number of MLAT requests made 
to the Department of Justice by foreign govern-
ments for the purpose of obtaining the contents 
of an electronic communication or other infor-
mation or records from a provider of electronic 
communications or remote computing services; 
and 
(ii) the average length of time taken by the 
Department of Justice to process the MLAT re-
quests described in clause (i). 
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(3) NOTICE TO DEPARTMENT OF STATE.—The 
Attorney General shall notify the Secretary of State 
not later than 7 days after the date on which disclo-
sure of electronic communications content to a for-
eign government is made pursuant to an MLAT re-
quest. 
(b) PRESERVATION
OF RECORDS.—The Attorney 
General may issue a request pursuant to section 2703(f) 
of title 18, United States Code, upon receipt of an MLAT 
request that appears to be facially valid. 
(c) NOTIFICATION
TO PROVIDER
OF MLAT RE-
QUEST.—When the Attorney General makes use of the 
process provided in section 2703 of title 18, United States 
Code, to obtain information from an electronic commu-
nications provider or a remote computing provider based 
on an MLAT request, the Attorney General shall notify 
that provider in writing that the request has been made 
pursuant to a mutual legal assistance treaty. 
SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) data localization requirements imposed by 
foreign governments on data providers are— 
(A) incompatible with the borderless na-
ture of the Internet; 
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(B) an impediment to online innovation; 
and 
(C) unnecessary to meet the needs of law 
enforcement; and 
(2) the Department of Justice, the Department 
of State, and the United States Trade Representa-
tives should pursue open data flow policies with for-
eign nations. 
Æ 
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