House Republicans have created a working group to write privacy laws that will establish federal privacy standards to change the present patchwork of state regulations. All preceding attempts to create federal privacy laws have been unsuccessful, and the lack of federal privacy legislation has resulted in about 20 states launching their own data privacy regulations.
In 2022, the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) was considered the best option to establish federal data privacy standards. Although the ADPPA received strong support, a few aspects of the bill were problematic, such as the preemption of state regulations. The inability of ADPPA to obtain enough support resulted in the creation of the American Privacy Rights Act of 2024.
In January 2025, less than 40 industry organizations wrote to some legislators requesting them to create a federal data privacy legislation to modify the present state regulations, compliance with which is becoming challenging for businesses. The following received a letter: Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Senator Ted Cruz ; Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Representative Brett Guthrie; and Ranking Members Frank Pallone and Maria Cantwell.
The industry groups explained in the letter that a consistent privacy standard would give assurance and uniformity concerning laws and the observance of privacy protections, which would help businesses and individuals. The letter included an overview of a national privacy structure with the same privacy standards as the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, but less strict than the present regulations in states like California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Virginia. National privacy protection should completely preempt state regulations on data privacy and security.
The working group led by Congressman John Joyce, M.D. (R-PA) is now taking action to implement this privacy framework. The group presently includes Representatives Guthrie (R-KY), Morgan Griffiths (R-VA), Jay Obernolte (R-CA), Troy Balderson (R-OH), Russell Fry (R-SC), Tom Kean (R-NJ), Nick Langworthy (R-NY), Julie Fedorchak (R-ND), and Craig Goldman (R-TX). The working group was assigned to the advancement of new government data privacy criteria and input is needed from different stakeholders. If legislation is created that has complete Republican support, the House and Senate will likely pass the legislation.
As HIPAA laws protect the privacy of patient data, a national data privacy standard is required to safeguard Americans’ rights on the internet and retain U.S. leadership in digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence. This working group would look into a framework for legislation that would hopefully be approved to address this important issue of privacy laws.
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