Parliament's privacy debates implode spectacularly

Parliament's privacy debates implode spectacularly

For years, Congress's attempts to control Silicon Valley have failed. But on Thursday, the House's effort to pass a long-awaited privacy bill failed resoundingly.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee abandoned a major review planned to examine children's privacy and online safety legislation just minutes before it took effect, stunning and aggravating members on both sides of the aisle.

The abrupt reversal triggered by resistance from House Republican leaders deals a near-fatal blow to the prospect of lawmakers being able to agree on the bills this year.

Lawmakers were expected to vote on two major bipartisan bills, the American Privacy Rights Act and the Kids Online Safety Act, which together would require companies to collect only the amount of data they need to offer specific products and to take steps to prevent potential harm to minors.

Committee members have been working on these issues for several years and have repeatedly won broad bipartisan support for their efforts, particularly the data privacy negotiations.

Last Congress, the Energy and Commerce Committee passed a largely similar data privacy bill by a near-unanimous vote. It was the first time that a commission gave the green light to such a measure. The latest version of their privacy legislation and the child safety bill, both of which have supporters in the Democratic-led Senate, were approved by a subcommittee vote last month.

But that support has begun to wane in recent days as House Republican leaders have opposed the privacy legislation, including the House majority leader. Steve Scalise (R-La.) criticize the measure to give consumers the right to sue companies for violations, among other things. Other Republicans, like Rep. Cat Cammack (R-Fla.), said Thursday they would have opposed the privacy bill.

“This bill has become so toxic and its structure is so difficult that we really have to scrap it and start from scratch, which is a very difficult task to undertake, but we are prepared to help them do it,” said a GOP leadership aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.

Democratic committee leaders have lambasted top Republicans for thwarting the plans.

” I am beside myself. I really am. I'm so furious. I am furious. We had an opportunity to pass the bill,” the representative said. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois), who played a leading role in privacy negotiations.

It is outrageous that Republican leaders are interfering with the committee's regular bipartisan ordering process, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) said in a statement.

Pallone congratulated the president Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who canceled the session under pressure, for his dedication to giving Americans back control of their data.

The cancellation of the conference call was a logical decision, as the assistants informed the participants of the conference call less than five minutes before the start of the session. Outside the courtroom, the Tech Brief and other media outlets inadvertently informed some lawmakers of the news, much to their dismay.

“I thought it was going to be complicated, but I didn’t think it was going to be canceled,” the representative said. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.), one of the few members who opposed committee privacy legislation in the last Congress. Eshoo added that the bill is not ready to go to viewers.

McMorris Rodgers appeared to take umbrage with House leaders' decision to intervene before the committee had even marked up the bills, telling reporters Thursday: This is not the way the House is supposed to work.

McMorris Rodgers said leaders have expressed concerns about both the Children's Privacy and Online Safety bill, known as KOSA, but she said they hope to regroup and try to schedule a new marking date as soon as possible.

I know that earlier this week we had the votes, she added.

According to several reportsScalise and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) took the unusual step of holding a call with members of Energy and Commerce to air their grievances about the privacy bill on the eve of the markup without McMorris Rodgers.

A senior Congress official familiar with the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive discussions, said House leaders took unprecedented steps to publicly flog one of their Speakers. most eminent and powerful before the increase.

Johnson tweeted thursday that he has committed to working to build consensus in the House on a data privacy bill.

The GOP leadership aide said his staff has tried for months to work with the committee on the bill but was unwilling to commit to potential changes. A Republican committee aide called those remarks inaccurate, saying they have been engaged for more than a year. The committee aide said abandoning the bill now would be a waste of the best opportunity we have to act and a pandering to the vested interests of Big Tech and other businesses.

The biggest problem right now for lawmakers is that key negotiating points House leaders are trying to reopen over whether a federal law should preempt state measures and give consumers the right to sue have put years to be resolved.

And even if enough members of the House of Representatives can agree on these issues, a major overhaul of the privacy bill at this point could threaten their negotiations with the Senate, which have been tense for years but made a major breakthrough earlier this year.

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