Another Senate Privacy Bill in the Works

A bipartisan group of four Senators have been discussing another potential online privacy bill, according to Bloomberg Law. Bloomberg reported recently that Senator John Thune was also working on a new federal privacy law to introduce into the U.S. Senate.

The four Senators mentioned taking part in the discussions were Republican Senators Jerry Moran (Kan.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.) along with Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Brian Schatz (Hawaii). According to the Bloomberg Law sources, they are open to working with Senator Thune to reach a consensus measure. All five Senators are members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in the 115th Congress. Senator Thune is the committee chairmen.

Senator Blumenthal is already a co-sponsor of the CONSENT Act, which was introduced into the U.S. Senate earlier this year. The CONSENT Act was introduced just before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before Congress.

There are already several privacy bills in Congress and the White House has indicated that it is working on a privacy proposal to send this fall. No details about the White House proposal have been released but the media has reported that it has involved the National Tecommunications and Information Adminsitration as well as the White House National Economic Counsel.

Senator Thune has indicated that he plans to schedule hearings on privacy for the Senate Commerce Committee. The Federal Trade Commission is also planning to hold public hearings on technology, competition and privacy this fall to help set its priorities on the matter.

Businesses have been lobbying the federal government hard for a national privacy law that eliminates the possibility that they will have to comply with 50 different state privacy laws. This push has been spurred by the California Consumer Privacy Act, which was signed by the California Governor in June and goes into effect in 2020.

There are only about five weeks of legislating in DC this fall before Congress breaks for the November elections. However, because of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, GDPR and California, it seems like there is going to be a big push in the federal government on privacy during that time.

More from Clarip – Other Blog Posts on Privacy Bills in the US Senate:

American Data Dissemination Act – Senator Marco Rubio.
Data Care Act – 15 Senate Democrats led by Senator Schatz
Consumer Data Protection Act – Draft by Senator Wyden
Senator Thune Privacy Bill
8 Proposals on Privacy from Draft Senate Policy Paper
Social Media Privacy and Consumer Rights Act introduced into Senate
Senate to Consider CONSENT Act for Enhanced Privacy Protections Online
Do Not Track Kids Act Back in Congress

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