Coalition Letter to White House to advance a federal privacy law

Dear President Biden,
The undersigned organizations urge you to designate two high-level officials
to lead an Administration effort to engage with Congress to support the
passage of comprehensive federal privacy legislation. We recommend a coleadership approach to ensure that both consumer privacy and cybersecurity
concerns are adequately addressed. This could be achieved by designating the
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA
Administrator and the National Cyber Director to co-lead the effort.
This request advances the “United For Privacy” campaign, intended to bring a
unified, cross-industry voice underscoring the urgent need to pass a national
privacy law this Congress. To kickstart the #UnitedForPrivacy campaign, the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce released a letter in January signed by 81 regional Chambers
of Commerce and 12 national business organizations from a wide range of
industries calling on Congress to pass federal privacy legislation. Over the past few
weeks, members of this coalition have met with key leaders of both parties in the
House and Senate who are committed to enacting federal privacy legislation this
year.
The need for a federal privacy law has never been greater. Since 2018, 37 states
have introduced or passed 72 different, and often conflicting, data privacy bills, and
that number is growing rapidly. Without congressional action, we will inevitably
have a patchwork of laws in all 50 states. This is confusing consumers and hurting
businesses, especially small- and medium-sized companies that are struggling
through the pandemic and record inflation.
Failing to pass federal privacy legislation would cost the American economy more
than $1 trillion over 10 years, with more than $200 billion being paid by small
businesses. This means that resources that could go toward creating jobs
are being spent on compliance costs and legal bills. Since the enactment of
the California Consumer Privacy Act in 2020, there have been nearly 200 lawsuits
involving companies that sell to customers in California despite being located
elsewhere.
Moreover, the United States is increasingly placing itself at a competitive
disadvantage because it has fallen behind other nations in passing national
comprehensive privacy legislation. Any further delay will increase the threat that
the United States will cede leadership to countries that do not share the democratic
values that America supports.
A federal privacy law can change this dynamic. Rather than forcing American
consumers and companies to navigate dozens of different state privacy laws, we
need a unified approach that gives consumers assurances their data and privacy
will be protected no matter where they live while providing the business community
certainty about their responsibilities.
We would be pleased to provide further information and to be a resource to the
Administration on this issue. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Carl
Holshouser, Senior Vice President of TechNet, at cholshouser@technet.org or (202)
372-7000, who is serving as the main point of contact for this coalition.
Sincerely,
Alliance for Automotive Innovation
American Escrow Association
American Financial Services Association
Association of National Advertisers
Business Roundtable
California Life Sciences Association
Chamber of Progress
Consumer Technology Association
Electronic Transactions Association
Information Technology Industry Council
Interactive Advertising Bureau
Marketplace Industry Association
National Business Coalition on E-Commerce and Privacy
National Electrical Manufacturers Association
NetChoice
Security Industry Association
Software and Information Industry Association
TechNet
TECNA
U.S. Chamber of Commerc