diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/iam_policy.py b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/iam_policy.py
index 1b537905591..87f32c9838f 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/iam_policy.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/amazon/iam_policy.py
@@ -301,7 +301,7 @@ def main():
             with open(policy_document, 'r') as json_data:
                 pdoc = json.dumps(json.load(json_data))
                 json_data.close()
-        except IOError:
+        except IOError as e:
             if e.errno == 2:
                 module.fail_json(
                     msg='policy_document {0:!r} does not exist'.format(policy_document))