As Data Breach Legislation Advances in House Along Party Lines, Committee Votes Against Strengthening Protections for Consumers

Washington, DC - Today the House Energy & Commerce Committee marked up HR 1770, the Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2015, and advanced the bill to the full House. Despite being touted as a bipartisan bill, votes to advance it out of committee were split along party lines, with even Rep. Welch (D-VT), the only Democrat who originally co-sponsored the bill, voting not to advance the bill. As OTI has explained, the bill would eliminate key protections for sensitive information under existing state law and the Communications Act.

The following can be attributed to Laura Moy, Senior Policy Counsel of New America’s Open Technology Institute:

“We are extremely disappointed to see the committee advance a bill that is weaker than the data security and breach notification standards that consumers currently enjoy under stronger state laws and existing federal law, which this bill would preempt. We aren’t opposed to efforts to establish a uniform national standard for data security and breach notification, but the new standard shouldn’t be weaker than the status quo.

“Put simply, this supposed pro-privacy bill would actually weaken privacy protections. For example, the bill would eliminate data security and breach notification requirements that currently apply to text message histories, cable and satellite viewing histories, and some health information. It would also prevent the Federal Communications Commission from continuing its strong enforcement of data security and breach notification standards against telecommunications providers, such as the $25 million fine it levied against AT&T last week for a series of breaches of private records.

“We are also concerned with the process through which this bill has been developed. One major amendment that passed today wasn’t even shared with committee members until less than an hour before markup. If the majority were truly interested in crafting a bipartisan compromise, they would hold off on advancing the bill until their colleagues across the aisle had the opportunity to review and comment on the language.

“Several members of the committee share our concerns with the bill and voiced them at today’s markup. We are hopeful that those concerns will be addressed in the full House, and look forward to working with members to improve the bill.”