Congress Stalls On A National Privacy Law

Many watchers of Congress and privacy have given a lot of time and attention to the American Privacy Rights Act this session, hoping that the bipartisan bill would finally mean that the country would have national privacy rules. In early July, House leadership torpedoed a markup of the bill, pushing back against the chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee's efforts to submit the bill for further consideration. Various officials described their reservations over the lack of a pre-emption clause (meaning the national law would not take precedence over conflicting state privacy laws) and the fact that the bill currently allows for a private right of action (consumers can sue companies directly for violations).