On Friday, June 3, Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), along with Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-MS), released a discussion draft of a comprehensive national data privacy and security framework—dubbed the American Data Privacy and Protection Act—marking the first comprehensive privacy proposal to gain bipartisan, bicameral support.
The bill is the product of years of negotiation, beginning in 2019 with the formal introduction of competing proposals in the Senate by Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Ranking Member Wicker (see prior alert here), and followed by the release of a bipartisan discussion draft in the House by E&C Committee staff. However, this draft did not contain legislative language on controversial provisions such as preemption and a private right of action, leaving the areas in brackets for stakeholder input, and bipartisan discussions tapered off with little progress, with House Republicans unveiling their own draft in 2021—the Control Our Data Act.