McMorris Rodgers commends House passage of data-protection bill

Bipartisan legislation offered by U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) that would prohibit data brokers from selling Americans’ sensitive personal information to foreign adversaries on March 20 received unanimous approval from the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024, H.R. 7520, which Rep. McMorris Rodgers cosponsored on March 5 with bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), received House approval with a 414-0 vote and on March 21 advanced to the U.S. Senate, which referred it to the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee for consideration. 

The congresswoman and Rep. Pallone, who are U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee chair and ranking member, respectively, released a joint statement applauding House passage of H.R. 7520.

“Today’s overwhelming vote sends a clear message that we will not allow our adversaries to undermine American national security and individual privacy by purchasing people’s personally identifiable sensitive information from data brokers,” the lawmakers said on Wednesday. “H.R. 7520 is another key step towards strengthening data protections and safeguarding our nation from foreign adversaries.”

If enacted, H.R. 7520 would make it unlawful for a data broker to sell, license, rent, trade, transfer, release, disclose, or otherwise make available specified sensitive data of U.S. individuals to North Korea, China, Russia, or Iran, or an entity controlled by these countries, according to the congressional record bill summary.

Sensitive data includes government-issued identifiers (e.g., Social Security numbers), financial account numbers, biometric information, genetic information, precise geolocation information, and private communications such as texts or emails, the summary says.

“The legislation… serves as an important complement to more comprehensive national data privacy legislation, which we remain committed to working together on,” said Rep. McMorris Rodgers and her colleague. “We’re encouraged by today’s strong vote, which should help build momentum to get this important bipartisan legislation, as well as more comprehensive privacy legislation, signed into law this Congress.”

The Energy and Commerce Committee on March 7 passed H.R. 7520 with a unanimous vote of 50-0.