Recently enacted laws

H.R. 4952 · 99th Congress · enacted

Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986

Became Public Law No: 99-508.

Latest official action 1986-10-21 · Enacted

The bill, briefly

Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 - Title I: Interception of Communications and Related Matters - Amends the Federal criminal code to extend the prohibition against the unauthorized interception of communications to include specific types of electronic communications. (Present law prohibits the interception of wire and oral communications only.) Specifies certain exceptions with respect to electronic communications. Extends such prohibition to the communications of any provider of wire or electronic communication services. (Present law extends only to communications common carriers.) Provides for reduced criminal penalties where the unauthorized access to the electronic communication is not for a tortious or illegal purpose or private commercial gain. States that the interception of certain satellite transmissions is not an offense unless it is for the purposes of direct or indirect commercial advantage or private financial gain. Prohibits any person or entity providing an electronic communication service, with specified exceptions, from knowingly divulging the contents of any communication carried on that service. Allows any person whose wire, oral, or electronic communication is intercepted, disclosed, or willfully used to bring a civil action to recover damages. (Present law allows such a civil action only for the interception or use of wire or oral communicatio…

Congressional Research Service · 1986-06-05

Who reported lobbying on this bill?

Amount spent specifically on this bill: not disclosed

The reports below name this bill and disclose an organization’s overall lobbying expenses or a firm’s client income for the period. They can cover many bills and issues. These amounts are not payments to the bill or its politicians.

No matching lobbying report is imported yet. This is not evidence that no lobbying occurred.

2,409 latest lobbying reports imported. Some source imports are still in progress.

Politicians behind the bill

Sponsors and cosponsors from the official source, limited to members currently in office. Campaign amounts are cycle-wide and are not payments for this bill.

No current-officeholder sponsorship match is available. Historical sponsors may have left office.

35 of 35 source cosponsor records retrieved; only current officials and unwithdrawn sponsorships appear.

PAC donors to the listed sponsors

These are all-cycle contributions to the listed sponsors’ and cosponsors’ campaigns. FEC does not attribute them to this bill. A donation plus sponsorship does not establish why a politician acted.

The largest 40 donor totals appear here. Open each politician for their complete, paginated PAC donor list.

What happened after enactment?

Dated agency-reported implementation and uptake measures are shown with their scope. They do not by themselves establish causal success. If no evidence is listed, the outcome is not established.

Measured outcome: not established
Enactment alone does not show whether a law improved its intended outcome. We need a dated evaluation, observed result or verified implementation record before claiming success or failure.