Legislative Activity

Data Breach Legislation Continues to be a Congressional Priority

Both House and Senate legislators continue to introduce variations of data security/data breach notification legislation and other bills are expected to be introduced in the near term. To date, only one bill has been marked up in committee and none of the bills have made it to the House or Senate floor. Most of the bills remain in a holding pattern while the relevant Congressional committees of jurisdiction determine how to move forward on data breach legislation. Currently, the following pieces of legislation are pending in Congress:

• Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2015 (H.R. 1770)
• Data Security Act of 2015 (H.R. 2205)
• Personal Data Notification and Protection Act of 2015 (H.R. 1704)
• Data Security Act of 2015 (S. 961)
• Consumer Privacy Protection Act of 2015 (S. 1158)
• Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2015 (S. 177)
• Data Breach Notification and Punishing Cyber Criminals Act of 2015 (S. 1027)

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) also plans to introduce another data breach notification bill in the coming weeks but has not offered details on what would be included in the bill.

Timeline for Senate Consideration of Information Sharing Legislation Unclear

Two weeks ago, the House passed two information sharing bills –the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (H.R. 1560) and the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act (H.R. 1731). Both bills have been joined together into one combined bill that incorporates the features of both pieces of legislation to address issues related to information sharing between the federal government and the private sector. While the Senate is unlikely to take up the combined House bill, it does plan to consider the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act on the floor soon. Many stakeholders thought that the bill would be considered prior to Memorial Day but it appears as though this timeline may have slipped given the other priorities of the Senate in the next two weeks.

This Week’s Hearings:

• Thursday, May 14: The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing titled “Protecting Consumers: Financial Data Security in the Age of Computer Hackers.”