Readout on House Privacy Hearing: Wide Attendance, Lots of Issues, Full Steam Ahead

On June 14, the House E&C Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce held a hearing to consider issues and concerns raised by the three corners” privacy discussion draft” released to the public June 3. As we blogged last week, the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) is an historic bipartisan compromise among three key committee leaders in the House and Senate (Sen. Wicker and Reps. Pallone and McMorris Rodgers). So far, it lacks the backing of the fourth, Senator Cantwell. The hearing came together quickly, reflecting the limited time and challenges in this election year to pass a bill of this significance. The 3+ hour event showcased myriad issues and concerns that the witnesses and other stakeholders have raised with respect to the draft. Still, Subcommittee leaders pledged to keep working on the bill and expressed optimism that they might be able to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation this year. As of this writing, we understand that there will be subcommittee markup next Thursday and a full-committee markup sometime after the July 4th recess. The witnesses (eight of them!) included a mix of experts from the public interest and business communities: Caitriona Fitzgerald, Electronic Privacy Information Center