“On behalf of the Administration, I am pleased to present for the consideration of the Congress a legislative proposal that would help resolve potential conflicting legal obligations that U.S. electronic communications service providers (“service providers”) may face when required to disclose electronic data by foreign governments investigating serious crime, including terrorism. The legislative proposal is necessary to implement a potential bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States that would permit U.S. companies to provide electronic data in response to U.K. orders targeting non-U.S. persons located outside the United States, while affording the United States reciprocal rights regarding electronic data of companies storing data in the United Kingdom. Because this legislative proposal would require amendments to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), one potential avenue for consideration of the proposal would be in the context of current ECPA reform efforts. Foreign governments investigating criminal activities abroad increasingly require access to electronic evidence from U.S. companies that provide electronic communications services to millions of their citizens and residents. Such data is often stored or accessible only in the United States, where U.S. law, including ECPA, limits the companies’ ability to disclose it. Our companies may face conflicting legal obligations when foreign governments require them to disclose electronic data that U.S. law prohibits them from disclosing. This legal conflict can occur even though the request is made pursuant to lawful process inthe foreign country, involves communications between foreign nationals abroad, and concerns criminal activities outside the United States with no relation to this country other than the fact that the serv ice provider stores the data in the United States…”