House panel unveils draft of privacy bill

A key House committee on Wednesday unveiled a first draft of a bipartisan federal privacy bill, bringing Congress one step closer to passing a law to rein in the tech industry’s unregulated collection of personal information on its millions of U.S. users.

A new hope: The House bill offers new hope for industry watchers who have been rooting for Congress to work up the country’s first comprehensive privacy bill, which will draw new safeguards around how companies are allowed to collect and use reams of data about the people who use their services.

Staffers on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the internet, sent the draft legislation to stakeholders on Wednesday. They’re currently seeking comments from the many privacy groups, companies and trade groups that have been watching the bill negotiations closely for nearly a year.

“Committee staff have circulated a bipartisan staff discussion draft of comprehensive federal privacy legislation,” an Energy and Commerce spokesperson said. “This draft seeks to protect consumers while also giving data collectors clear rules of the road. It reflects many months of hard work and close collaboration between Democratic and Republican Committee staff.”

How it compares: On many issues, the House’s privacy bill discussion draft hews closely to the legislation recently offered by the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee.

But…: The bill, however, side-steps several of the most divisive issues on the table, including whether any federal law will override incoming state privacy laws and whether individuals should be empowered to sue companies over privacy violations.

Those two divisive issues have led to months of stalled negotiations on the Senate Commerce Committee, where Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) have been held up for months as they try to break the impasse.

What the members are saying: The top Republican who has been working on the bill, Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Ore.), in a statement emphasized that the draft is unfinished. She has been working alongside Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a key Democrat on the committee.

“This staff draft is not a finished product but will serve as an important step in the process for us to solicit feedback and continue to negotiate a final bill,” McMorris-Rodgers said. “I’m appreciative of the bipartisan staff work that has gone into this and am committed to continue working with Chair Schakowsky towards a bipartisan privacy bill.”

Schakowsky called the draft a “significant step towards establishing critical privacy protections.”

“We look forward to receiving feedback from public interest groups, industry, academics, and anyone else who wishes to provide feedback over the coming weeks,” Schakowsky said in a statement. “Based on that input, we will decide timing on next steps.”