Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
House GOP leadership again indicated they're unsure about the American Privacy Rights Act in its current form during a meeting with industry representatives last week, sources told Axios.
Why it matters: A lack of strong support from House Republican leaders would severely limit the chances that the bipartisan federal privacy bill makes it past committee.
- Axios previously reported on a similar meeting last month with tech groups in which leadership staff expressed that their bosses were not happy with the privacy bill it its current form.
State of play: Last Thursday about 30 reps of various industries including tech, auto, retail and the service industry met with senior leadership staff for House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer.
- They met to discuss APRA, which recently advanced out of a House Commerce subcommittee and is awaiting full committee markup, per a former senior leadership aide and two other sources familiar with the matter.
- Since that markup, business, tech and other groups have come out against the bill, specifically taking issue with its lack of full federal preemption of state privacy laws and its inclusion of a private right of action allowing people to sue companies.
Friction point: Per sources familiar with the meeting, the leadership aides asked the business reps if they'd support APRA if they got all the changes to the text they wanted, but the bill kept its private right of action. Groups present said they would not.
- House Energy and Commerce staff and members were not at the meeting.
- Sources told Axios that both Scalise and Emmer staffers did not support the bill in its current form.
- Another source familiar with the meeting said Johnson's aide did not indicate a specific position on the bill.
The other side: According to a source with knowledge of the bill negotiations, the text has not been finalized and will look different from the discussion draft before it gets marked up by the full committee.
- "I look forward to continuing working with all members and stakeholders to further perfect it before the full committee markup," House E&C Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers said at the subcommittee markup last month.
