Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
House Republican leadership and Energy and Commerce members from both parties are uneasy with the draft American Privacy Rights Act, suggesting a messy future ahead for the bill.
The big picture: An E&C subcommittee on Thursday is marking up the new draft, the latest legislative bid to get a comprehensive federal privacy law on the books.
- But fractures within the House and pushback from industry are already threatening the bill's prospects in a fraught election year.
- GOP leaders are worried about the private right of action and pre-emption, while Democrats say the latest draft doesn't have enough protections for kids.
Behind the scenes: Sources told Axios that trade associations met with staff for House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer last week for, as one source put it, a "venting session."
- The tech and business groups took issue with the bill's private right of action and what they called weak pre-emption language.
- Aides told the groups that all three members of leadership could not support the bill with those two aspects still in it.
- A spokesperson for Johnson confirmed the meeting occurred. Scalise and Emmer's offices did not provide comment.
Sources also said other lawmakers in meetings with E&C Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers expressed concern that they're facing tough re-election races and felt it was too risky to rally behind her bill.
- CMR told Axios on Wednesday that she met with only one member who is worried supporting APRA will hurt their re-election chances, without specifying who.
- CMR: "I know there are stakeholders in D.C. that are trying to put fear into people and into members even, but it's different on the ground and it's different across this nation. People know what needs to happen."
Democrats also told Axios that they're still analyzing the latest draft, but expressed initial concerns.
- "We've made a lot of progress on coming to a consensus, but there's still there's still work to be done," ranking member Frank Pallone said Wednesday.
- Rep. Yvette Clarke said she's going to be briefed on "the reconfiguration of the civil rights provisions" in the new draft.
Pallone spokesperson CJ Young said Democrats during the subcommittee markup on Thursday are going to say there's more work that needs to be done on APRA.
- Pallone previously raised concerns that the original draft did not include strong enough protections for kids and, Young said, the latest draft still needs additional protections.
What's inside: The current discussion draft includes COPPA 2.0, but excludes language to close what bill sponsors say is a loophole that allows social media platforms to evade liability by claiming to have not known a user's age.
- For algorithmic discrimination, there is new language in the latest draft requiring companies to conduct impact assessments and design evaluations — either through a third party auditor or in-house — then report findings to NTIA.
- The shift to NTIA from the FTC in this draft may be welcomed by companies that view Chair Lina Khan as too tough on tech.
- But the independent auditors language is raising alarm among industry because there are no established standards for that, sources said.
Reality check: A spokesperson for CMR said they've met with hundreds of stakeholders. It is unlikely any bill will fully satisfy any outside group.
