WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, applauded Senate passage of his Judicial Redress Act of 2015, legislation that will promote increased law enforcement cooperation and boost transatlantic relations. The bipartisan Judicial Redress Act protects the privacy rights of citizens of major U.S. allies and helps further two critical information sharing agreements with Europe to move forward, one that allows law enforcement to share data from country to country, and one that allows for U.S. technology companies to continue to do business in Europe. 

“We took a major step today toward strengthening America’s security, enhancing international commerce, and restoring relations with our European partners,” said Murphy. “Despite months of delay, the Judicial Redress Act will cement the vital international relationships we rely on to fill gaps in law enforcement and support U.S. technology companies conducting business abroad. I’m relieved that the Senate finally acted in America’s best interest and passed this relatively small bill that has such an outsized impact on our national security and the U.S. economy.”

Last year, U.S. and European Union negotiators agreed upon an Umbrella Agreement to facilitate the sharing of critical law enforcement information, but its implementation has been contingent on passage into law of the Judicial Redress Act. The Judicial Redress Act is also important for U.S. businesses, following last year’s ruling by the European Court of Justice to strike down the Safe Harbor agreement that governed commercial data flows due to the lack of privacy protections for E.U. citizens. Just last week, negotiators from the United States and the European Union announced  – amid news that Congress was set to pass the Judicial Redress Act – that they have finalized a political agreement on a new Safe Harbor framework that will facilitate continued commercial data sharing. 

The Judicial Redress Act was introduced in the Senate by Murphy and U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and Congressmen Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and is supported by the White House, U.S. Department of Justice, and U.S. federal law enforcement agencies. The legislation has been endorsed by numerous organizations and associations, including The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Application Developers Alliance, BSA, The Software Alliance Computer & Communications Industry Association, Information Technology Industry Council, Internet Association, Software & Information Industry Association, the Trans Atlantic Business Council, IBM, Facebook, Foursquare, Google, Intuit, Microsoft, and Yahoo.