Will this new Congress be the one to pass data privacy legislation?

Will this new Congress be the one to pass data privacy legislation? So far the Senate has done the most visible work. And, with a variety of stakeholders contributing input, will this be enough to bring about passage? As a committed optimist, it’s my belief that there is a sweet spot where business interests and privacy advocates can converge. There is a brief window for this to happen, because once California’s new privacy law takes effect at the beginning of 2020 and the next federal election takes shape, agreement is likely to become more difficult. Privacy and consumer legislation have fared well in divided government. The cornerstones of federal privacy law, the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Privacy Act, were enacted in 1974 when Republicans held the White House and Democrats the Congress. Another wave of privacy laws—the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 on financial privacy—was passed under the Clinton administration with Republicans in control of Congress. Whether privacy legislation can follow this pattern in 2019 will test whether this Congress seeks to pass legislation—or to build political brands.