ITI Pushes Congress for MLAT Funding

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) renewed its “call for Congress to increase funding for the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) process,” following a multi-association letter sent to congressional leaders last week, an ITI news release said Monday. Nations use MLATs “to request data for criminal investigation,” ITI said. “As the backlog in requests go unanswered, foreign governments are attempting to circumvent the MLAT process and seek data directly from U.S. technology companies, placing companies in a difficult posture, as the law requires these requests to go through the MLAT process.” With some 11,000 MLAT requests waiting to be processed, ITI said it and a coalition of tech sector trade groups have “pressed Congress to fully fund the MLAT process.”