Protecting Americans' Data From Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 7520, the Protecting Americans' Data from Foreign Adversaries Act.

Last week, the House took historic action to protect Americans' data from foreign-owned subsidiaries such as ByteDance. Today, we have legislation that will protect Americans' data privacy from data brokers seeking to sell our personally identifiable sensitive information to these foreign entities.

The subcommittee that I chair has done significant work to get this done to lay the foundation for why we need a strong Federal data privacy and security law and why a Federal standard is needed to protect Americans here at home while balancing the needs of business, government, and civil society.

As there is no Federal comprehensive data privacy and security law, data brokers are often unfettered when it comes to selling personally identifiable information. Our adversaries can all too easily purchase this sensitive data of American citizens, including information that identifies our servicemen and -women, and can target individuals based on their connection to the military and the Federal Government more broadly.

H.R. 7520 will prohibit data brokers from selling our personally identifiable sensitive information and ensure proper enforcement authorities are in place to go after these bad actors.

This small and targeted change to an otherwise free market will help ensure citizens' personal data is kept safe from entities seeking to manipulate Americans, while still respecting broader business decisions in the marketplace.

I thank Chair Rodgers and Ranking Member Pallone for their great work here on this particular issue. It takes leadership, Madam Speaker, and we have it here in the Energy and Commerce Committee. Our wonderful staff is the best. They are second to none, and they got this done.

To me, this only underscores the need to complete our subcommittee's top priority this Congress. We must enact a comprehensive Federal data privacy and security law as soon as possible.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 7520. This is vital for our national security. As many alluded to last week, I urge my colleagues to support our efforts on moving forward toward enacting stronger data privacy and security protections broadly for Americans nationwide. So great work has been done by the leadership and the committee in the full Congress. Let's get this across the finish line and over to the United States Senate and the President's desk.

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