CCAGW Urges Washington House Appropriations Committee to Oppose HB 1850
State Action
February 28, 2022
Washington House Committee on Appropriations
Washington State Capitol
416 Sid Snyder Avenue SW
Olympia, Washington 98504
Dear Representative,
On behalf of the 49,792 members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) in Washington, I urge you to vote against HB 1850, which seeks to protect the personal identifying information of consumers in Washington through the creation of a new set of consumer data privacy restrictions on companies conducting business with residents of the state.
Unfortunately, this bill will fail to achieve its objective to protect consumer privacy. Instead, it would create instability and uncertainty for companies doing business over the internet and their customers. The internet is not contained within a single state’s boundaries and therefore participants operating within the internet ecosystem can only be regulated by the federal government under the Commerce Clause, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.
States have enacted or will be reviewing laws that would protect personal information, including online privacy for children, websites, and monitoring employee e-mail communications. These laws would affect any business operating or selling to customers in each state, impinging on interstate commerce. Without the adoption of a consistent national privacy protection regime that preempts state and local laws, more states will enact their own rules, which raises costs and complicates compliance for businesses and individuals.
On November 3, 2021, House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-Wash.), along with Republican committee members, provided an outline and draft language for a national privacy framework.
Rather than passing HB 1850 and adding to the patchwork of state privacy legislation that has created confusion, conflict, and high compliance costs for businesses large and small, I strongly encourage you instead to work with Rep. McMorris Rogers and her colleagues to pass a bipartisan national privacy law by the end of this year.
Again, I urge you to vote against HB 1850.
Sincerely,
Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW
