Who?
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) — Chair, House Commerce Committee
LISTEN: Laslo & McMorris Rodgers
Ask a Pol asks:
Have you and Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) have been talking about a privacy bill for a while?
Key McMorris Rodgers:
“[It] certainly been a priority of mine, and I've been pretty clear since I've become Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that it was a priority. I've worked on it in past Congresses,” Rep. McMorris Rodgers exclusively tells Ask a Pol.
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On work since past Congresses:
“We just kept at it, kept working on language, hammering out language to address preemption and enforcement as well as the new privacy protections for individuals, and I'm really encouraged,” Rep. McMorris Rodgers tells us.
ICYMI — Ask a Pol’s exclusive w/ Sen. Cantwell
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers
Matt Laslo: “Exciting development in the privacy world?”
Cathy McMorris Rodgers: “Yeah, it's good.”
ML: “How'd that one come about?”
CMR: “How'd it come about?”
ML: “Have you and [Senate Commerce Chair Maria] Cantwell been talking about it for a while?”
CMR: “Well, it's been, certainly been a priority of mine, and I've been pretty clear since I've become Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that it was a priority. I've worked on it in past Congresses. We had the bill that [Rep.] Frank Pallone had led.”
ML: “Yeah, but then it died because [fmr. House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi killed it, because they couldn't thread that needle.”
CMR: “Well, we just kept at it and kept working on language, hammering out language to address preemption and enforcement, as well as the new privacy protections for individuals, and I'm really encouraged.”
ML: “Is this a hard one to sell to your [Republican] conference? Or has it been easy or what's that look like?”
CMR: “Oh, you know, we’re just — we’re gonna start working through regular order. And we have the hearing announced for next week (hearing was April 17th), and then we'll have a bill. Yeah, I think there's a lot of people that know that, I mean we've been working for years and years on trying to get a national data privacy law.”
ML: “Yeah. Do you think this can be cut through? I mean, it's campaign year, so...”
CMR: “Yeah well, I don’t know. Hope rings eternal.”
ML: “But all these other measures have gone over the Senate to die, which [Sen.] Josh Hawley says is because of [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer and the Silicon Valley interests.”
CMR: “We'll keep working on it.”
ML: “Do you — like, how do you guys combat about all the money they're going to throw at dislodging this?”
CMR: “Yeah, well, we keep educating people.”
ML: “Yeah, I’ll be watching. Thank you, ma’am.”
Matt Laslo’s a veteran congressional correspondent, new media prof. & founder of Ask a Pol — a new, people-powered press corps.
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McMorris Rodgers plan to overcome Silicon Valley opposition to data privacy: "educating people"