The Senate has bipartisan momentum for creating a federal data privacy law but lacks a consensus on what to include.
Federal lawmakers agree about cracking down on tech companies but disagree about the best way to accomplish that goal.
Democrats want to spend more taxpayer dollars to empower the Federal Trade Commission to protect consumers and are comfortable letting the Biden administration write new rules if Congress does not make a new law. Some Republicans, however, are concerned about more government spending and about proposals for additional layers of bureaucracy.
Amid the tension between Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Commerce Committee about how to proceed, the panel’s top-ranking Republican, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, pleaded on Wednesday with the Biden administration to work with him and the committee’s chair, Sen. Maria Cantwell, Washington state Democrat.
“I invite the administration to work with Sen. Cantwell and me to make a comprehensive data privacy law a reality,” said the Mississippi Republican at a commerce committee hearing. “I call on the president to appoint someone, a specific person, among his senior staff to be a liaison to Congress on this issue and to prioritize the enactment of a data privacy law this year.”
Some Democrats do not want to wait for Republican support before changing privacy rules.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, is urging the Biden administration to start working on new privacy rules now without waiting for Congress.
“If Congress were willing to act, of course, that might be everyone’s preference but it is what it is, and in the meantime, states are also filling the gap, that’s the nature of our federal system … but the FTC should start the clock on privacy rules,” Mr. Blumenthal said.
“Either Congress acts or the commission does. An FTC rulemaking at the very least would build a record and provide recommendations to Congress for action,” he added.
Senators are considering proposals including additional government spending and the creation of a privacy bureau inside the FTC.
Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, said the FTC’s existing budget request is for $389 million, and Democrats’ $3.5 trillion social spending package includes a billion more taxpayer dollars for the FTC that Mr. Lee said the government cannot afford.
Mr. Lee also raised concerns that a new privacy bureau within the FTC could create an internal conflict with the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection.
Ms. Cantwell did not appear to share Mr. Lee’s concerns and said the FTC had neither the resources nor the expertise needed to protect consumers.
The Washington state Democrat’s top priority in ensuring new data privacy restrictions was compliance from tech companies regardless of whether new laws or new rules make it happen.
“We need compliance,” Ms. Cantwell said. “Compliance with existing laws or compliance with new rulemaking or compliance with a new privacy law will be insufficient if the FTC is not well-resourced, technology sophisticated, and the policemen on the beat of the information age.”
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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