Florida House Polishes Privacy Bill Ahead of Floor Vote

Florida House lawmakers teed up a possible Wednesday vote on comprehensive privacy legislation. Tuesday, during livestreamed floor debate, members adopted by voice an amendment by HB-9 sponsor Rep. Fiona McFarland (R) while rejecting a Democratic attempt to narrow the bill’s scope and add a right to cure to its proposed private right of action.

Washington state is now pursuing a “two-bill solution” suggested by Gov. Jay Inslee (D), with the Senate’s Washington Privacy Act (SB-5062) laying out "substantive privacy definitions" and the House’s HB-1850 establishing enforcement through the proposed state commission, said Rep. Drew Hansen (D) at a House Appropriations Committee virtual meeting Monday. SB-5062 sponsor Sen. Reuven Carlyle (D) supports the governor’s proposal, he told us Tuesday.

The Utah House Transportation Committee supported a privacy bill (SB-227) in a unanimous voice vote at a livestreamed meeting Tuesday. The Senate-passed bill will go next to the full House. With a growing state patchwork, it's important for Utah to pass the bill and join the national debate, said Rep. Ken Ivory (R). Sen. Kirk Cullimore (R) told the panel his bill is less burdensome for businesses than existing state laws. The committee adopted an amendment that Cullimore said fixes a drafting error related to how the bill defines biometric data.

The Florida House will bring up HB-9 for third reading and vote on the amended bill Wednesday, McFarland legislative aide Clay Gunter told us. McFarland’s latest amendment extended to four days from 48 hours proposed language on how long a company would have to honor opt-out requests. It also adds exemptions for personal information needed for warranties, recalls and measuring ad performance, and clarifies the bill’s attorney fee provisions.

The House defeated several amendments by Rep. Andrew Learned (D), who sought to narrow the bill’s scope in ways he said would protect small businesses. Learned pitched similar proposed edits unsuccessfully at a Judiciary Committee hearing last week (see 2202240003). Asking about one proposal to make the bill apply to companies that meet all three proposed threshold requirements in the bill rather than two of three, Rep. Randy Fine (R) asked Learned if he had any concern that his change, apparently meant to protect small businesses, would exempt Google and other Big Tech companies. Florida should avoid inadvertently wrapping in small businesses due to a “vendetta with one or two firms,” Learned said later.

Learned pitched adding a 10-day right to cure to the bill’s private cause of action, down from the 45-day right that he suggested last week to the Judiciary Committee. HB-9 has a right to cure only for attorney general enforcement. Let people sue companies for as much as they want, but “just give them 10 days to make it right,” he said. The amendment failed 29-77. After all his proposed edits failed, Learned praised McFarland’s latest amendment.

Washington state’s HB-1850 can now go to the House floor after the Appropriations Committee voted 17-16 Monday to clear the bill as amended to make it contingent on the Senate bill becoming law July 31, 2023 (see 2202280054). In addition to Hansen’s revised committee substitute, the panel adopted an amendment by Chair Timm Ormsby (D) adding a clause making the bill null and void unless funded in the budget. The panel defeated an amendment by Rep. Drew Stokesbary (R) to remove an annual fee on controllers and processors.

After listening to House and Senate privacy bill sponsors and stakeholders, Inslee’s office proposed compromise language it felt could get through both chambers, said HB-1850 sponsor Rep. Vandana Slatter (D) in a Tuesday interview. While the two-bill plan doesn’t include everything Slatter wanted, she agreed to the compromise because it achieves her main goals, including to create the state privacy commission and to provide equity and access so all constituents can be protected without having to hire a lawyer, the House member said.

“Doing nothing is not an option,” said Slatter. Previous attempts to pass a Washington privacy bill failed in three past years amid House-Senate disagreement over enforcement. While the Senate bill hadn’t allowed consumers to sue companies, HB-1850 will allow that form of enforcement, said the representative: “My chamber really needed a private right of action.” Slatter is “working in good faith” with Carlyle and has “a lot of hope that this may be able to get it through the process.”

“If the House moves forward with passage of HB 1850, then the Senate will make it a priority to attempt to secure the votes to pass the package,” a Carlyle spokesperson emailed Tuesday.

"This is perhaps not the bill I would have drafted," Hansen said at the hearing. "However, this bill will improve upon what we currently have in Washington state ... and with a further modification that will address the right to opt out and make that easier for consumers to exercise, I am informed the proposal will have the support of Consumer Reports."

"I'm not sure the two-bill solution from the governor's office addresses any of our concerns,” said Stokesbary for the committee’s Republicans. The GOP opposes a private right of action and taxing businesses, he said. Rep. Gerry Pollet (D) said he's opposed due to fears the bill would allow the proposed privacy commission to vote in secret. The American Civil Liberties Union has also raised concerns.

Consumer Reports agreed to support the two-bill plan with a change, agreed to by sponsors, to require businesses to honor browser privacy signals as a global opt-out of sale and targeted ads, CR Senior Policy Analyst Maureen Mahoney emailed Tuesday: The change will be in an amendment to SB-5062.

Indiana’s privacy bill died in the House despite SB-358 passing the Senate, a spokesperson for the Senate’s Republican majority told us Monday.