House panel to debate bipartisan comprehensive data privacy bill

A House panel will debate a bill that would set national standards for how companies obtain and manage data on Thursday.

The bipartisan bill, known as the American Data Privacy and Protection Act, was formally introduced in the House on Tuesday by Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.). 

The Energy and Commerce consumer protection subcommittee will hold a markup on the data privacy bill, along with seven others. 

The comprehensive data privacy bill would also require companies to provide individuals with clear ways to opt out of targeted advertising. It would put in place additional requirements for kids’ data, including banning companies from using targeted advertising for all minors and from transferring covered data for users 13 to 17 to third parties without user consent. 

Pallone and McMorris Rodgers, along with Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), unveiled a draft of the legislation earlier this month. 

But it lacks support from Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), meaning it’s less likely to move forward in the Senate.

Cantwell’s main sticking point with the proposal is over the degree to which individuals can pursue legal challenges against companies over data privacy breaches under the law. 

The bill would not allow individuals to bring cases over data breaches until four years after the law is in place. It would also require individuals to first notify the Federal Trade Commission and their state attorney general of their intent to bring action, and give the agencies 60 days to make a determination. 

“For American consumers to have meaningful privacy protection, we need a strong federal law that is not riddled with enforcement loopholes,” Cantwell said in a statement earlier this month, after Pallone, McMorris Rodgers and Wicker released their draft. 

Cantwell drafted a separate privacy bill. Her version would allow individuals to sue companies in federal court over privacy violations, without some of the additional steps laid out in the other proposal, according to a copy of the draft obtained by The Hill.