Senate Commerce Planning Post-Recess Markup for Privacy Bill

The Senate Commerce Committee plans to mark up privacy legislation when it returns from recess the week of July 23, Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told reporters Thursday.

Cantwell doesn’t believe the American Privacy Rights Act is dead in either chamber, despite objections from House Republicans (see 2406270046). She and the office of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., offered differing views on why the House Commerce Committee’s scheduled markup fell apart on June 27.

“I don’t know that it’s failed in the House,” said Cantwell, who introduced the bill with House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. There’s “a lot of support” in the House, but “one” person "tried to hold up the vote process. We hope that they will reconsider ... and move forward.”

Cantwell didn’t identify Scalise as that person but noted his role in opposing some of the bill’s provisions. She added that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., isn’t opposed, despite contrary statements from House Commerce Republicans. On the question of Scalise, she said, “I don’t know what his specific concerns are, but we’re happy to address a lot of the issues that people have. That’s probably what we’ll do in the next two weeks before we go to markup.” She noted the markup agenda hasn’t been finalized but said the focus will be privacy and AI-related legislation.

In a statement, Scalise’s office said Thursday that House Commerce didn’t mark up APRA “because Leadership and Republican members on the committee opposed the bill.”

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told us the bill has “a ton of rulemaking authority, and it’s also got problematic private right of action issues ... it would take some work” to gain Republican senators' support.

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Thursday he opposes APRA as written because of its algorithmic regulations and proposed delegation of authority to the FTC. FTC Commissioner Melissa Holyoak on Wednesday said the agency should focus its rulemaking efforts on clear, statutory text given the Supreme Court’s Chevron reversal (see 2407100063).

Cruz told us he wants two of his bills marked up: the Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks (Take It Down) Act, which he filed with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., (see 2406210047) and the Kids Off Social Media Act, filed with Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, (see 2405060059). “I would like to see them marked up and passed,” he said. “We’ve got strong, bipartisan support for both bills."

Cantwell in her opening remarks was concerned about AI's role in mass data collection and companies’ ability to increase prices for individual consumers based on AI-driven inferences. She also announced the introduction of the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media (Copied) Act with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. The Copied Act would require companies to obtain consent before using online content from journalists and creative artists to train AI models. The bill would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology to set transparency and watermarking standards and grant newspapers, broadcasters, artists and other content owners a private right of action to sue violators. The FTC and state attorneys general would also be able to enforce the bill’s provisions.

Thune mentioned private right of action concerns at the hearing while discussing APRA. ACT | The App Association President Morgan Reed told Thune that some form of PRA would be needed to strike a bipartisan agreement. But such a provision should have numerous backstops to prevent opportunistic lawyers from threatening platforms, particularly smaller companies, with bad-faith lawsuits designed to extract money, Reed said.