Politics are jeopardizing public policy

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Editor:

Congress should not let the hyper-partisan political environment impede common sense policy and necessary protection of citizen rights. With bipartisan support, the International Communications Privacy Act (ICPA) is prime to move. This legislation provides a much needed modernization to our laws regarding electronic data privacy, which haven’t been updated since 1986.

Continued impasse in Congress only allows the United States to fall further behind in a global economy. ICPA provides an opportunity for our country to lead once more and protect our citizens’ electronic communications, regardless of location. Under ICPA, law enforcement will be able to obtain the content of stored electronic communications only pursuant to a warrant – ensuring that electronic data is protected in the same way of communications or data on paper. Given the borderless nature of the internet and cloud-computing, we need to explicitly define the rules of the road and update our nation’s electronic communications policies. ICPA does just that.

As a former member of the state central committee, I witnessed time and time again politics jeopardizing sound public policy. It is time our legislators protect their constituents. I urge Congress to act quickly and pass ICPA.

Darryl Mehaffie

Greenville

By Darryl Mehaffie

Greenville

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