Erin Kelly

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — A key House panel voted Wednesday to pass an email privacy bill that would stop the government from being able to read Americans' old emails without a warrant.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 28-0 to approve the Email Privacy Act, a bipartisan bill that would replace a 1986 law that allows government investigators to peruse emails at will if the communications are at least six months old. The bill would require federal officials to obtain a warrant before they can read or view emails, texts, photos or instant messages — regardless of when the data was sent.

"Today is a great day for not only the Fourth Amendment advocates who have fought long and hard to move the Email Privacy Act, but also for all Americans, who are one step closer to having private and secure digital communications," said Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., the lead sponsor of the bill along with Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo.

The vote was Congress' first real move toward updating the 30-year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act. That law, written well before email was commonly used, considers old emails to be "abandoned" and allows federal agents to read them without obtaining a warrant.

"We are one step closer to eliminating the artificial distinction between a piece of paper in a filing cabinet and an email on a server," said Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., a former Microsoft executive who serves on the Judiciary Committee.

More than 300 House members have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, making it the most popular piece of legislation that has not yet received a vote in the House.

"With a vast majority of members supporting this bill, I urge House Leadership to bring it to the floor quickly," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.

Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, have introduced similar legislation and said they will push for a vote in the Senate once the House has approved the bill.

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"Congress has waited far too long to enact these reforms," the two senators said in a joint statement Wednesday. "The American people deserve a law that matches today’s digital age."

The tech industry and civil liberties groups applauded Wednesday's committee vote.

"As more and more communications are now stored in the cloud, updating privacy laws for the digital age is essential," said Ed Black, president and CEO of the Computer and Communications Industry Association. "The bill the Committee approved...sets an important standard of protection — government access to email content should require a warrant."

House panel considers bill to protect email privacy