Banking, Judiciary Leaders Want Stake in Commerce Privacy Bill Debate
Senate Banking Committee leadership told us they want more involvement in the ongoing privacy debate but, for now, will defer to the Senate Commerce Committee to lead the legislative effort. Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, also expects Senate Judiciary Committee participation, which raises jurisdictional questions for the three panels.
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The Banking Committee recently gathered feedback from groups on data privacy and collection practices. It received input from the Center for Democracy & Technology, Consumer Reports, Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Software & Information Industry Association, among others.
Given Commerce’s privacy working group (see 1903260068), Banking wants to, at the very least, offer Commerce some legislative input, Crapo said. Banking doesn’t have a specific legislative proposal in mind yet, Crapo said, but it's monitoring Commerce and Judiciary, the latter of which he said might also be "looking at" legislation. “I hope we do something,” said Banking ranking member Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. “This committee has not been as active as I’d like on a whole host of issues.” Collaboration with Commerce is possible, Brown said, but privacy is “pretty much their thing.”
Commerce is the lead committee on privacy, said Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.: “We have limited jurisdiction. … But we’ve got some ideas. The best way is to collaborate. I do think we have some space there, but it’s mostly Commerce.”
“I’m hoping that we’ll all be moving together,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. A member of both Commerce and Judiciary, Blumenthal is participating in two separate privacy working groups between the panels (see 1903180038). The Commerce working group has “words on paper” but hasn’t written a discussion draft, said Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan. The four lawmakers were scheduled to meet this week but had to reschedule because of logistical issues, Blumenthal and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, told reporters.
The Banking Committee has “done nothing” on Equifax (see 1903070065) and “not enough” on Wells Fargo, said Brown. “I’m hopeful that this information we gather will be useful in dealing with a lot of cybersecurity and with what these banks are doing.” It’s too soon to tell if specific legislation will come from the feedback, he said.
Crapo said the committee wants to know what data can be legally collected, what rights users have, how data is protected and what the consequences are if it’s not properly protected. He’s more interested in data privacy than data breach issues, noting the committee is looking at the “whole waterfront.” So much of the data collected affects credit and banking transactions, so the committee’s scope is growing rapidly, he said.
SIIA supports efforts to provide national, pre-emptive “standards for privacy, data security and data breach notification that aim to prevent and remedy consumer harms,” Senior Director-Technology Policy Sara DePaul wrote Banking. EPIC urged Congress to create a data protection plan, supplanting the FTC. Consumers should have “more meaningful controls over their financial information and how to utilize this data for themselves,” CDT said.