This email privacy bill is wildly popular. So, why won't it pass?

An effort to block law enforcement officials from seizing emails older than 180 days without a warrant has twice won unanimous support in the House of Representatives, yet sponsors are struggling to remain optimistic.

That's because the reform has been blocked by unexpected poison-pill amendments and opaque conference committee decisions, tempering expectations despite apparent overwhelming support.

"I don't know that this bill will ever get a vote in the Senate. It’s almost too popular to get a vote [because] other legislators want to attach things to it," said Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., the lead House sponsor of the Email Privacy Act.

Authorities in most places can seize older emails from companies without showing a judge evidence of potential crimes, as is needed when authorities seize physical letters.

“There are thousands of Americans who have been spied on, and they don’t even know it,” Yoder said. “The IRS for a long time had a policy that it was OK to read Americans’ emails without their knowledge, without their permission, simply by sending a subpoena or a notice to an email provider, because that was within the powers of the government. And how would you ever know?"