Senate Commerce Hearing: Senators inch forward on federal privacy bill

Senators argued over their dueling proposals for a federal privacy law during a highly anticipated hearing Dec 4, marking the first time key senators have taken their disputes public after months of closed-doors negotiations. The Senate Commerce Committee hearing underlined the significant daylight between the parties over how Congress should approach the country's first comprehensive privacy bill, which will create new safeguards around how businesses collect personal information about Americans — once lawmakers are able to resolve their long-standing disagreements. Democratic Sens argued that enabling Americans to sue companies like Facebook or Google would add an extra layer of protection for people whose personal information has been stolen or misused by private companies. Republican Sens, backing the tech industry’s position, said that it would result in frivolous and costly lawsuits. “A revisit on the private right of action is something that needs to be done,” said Sen Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). 

The Republicans on the panel emphasized that they believe any legislation should override state laws, including the incoming CA privacy law, which set off a wave of lobbying by tech companies calling for one standard federal privacy law. Sen Jerry Moran (R-KS) said he hopes any bill will “preempt a patchwork of state laws” — which Committee Ranking Member Maria Cantwell’s (D-WA) bill does not. Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) acknowledged there are "unresolved issues between my draft and the ranking member's draft." Nearly every member of the committee touted their own separate privacy or tech-related proposals, previewing the slew of pet issues that senators will likely attempt to tuck into any final privacy bill.