Software group cites concerns as stakeholders weigh in on revamped privacy bill

Brandon Pugh of the R Street Institute, in a statement for the record, offers support for the bill on state pre-emption, allowing uses of data for security purposes and other aspects of the draft proposal, and underlines the importance of bipartisan compromise in a difficult policy space.

“Differences in approaches and substantive provisions have been the downfall of past attempts to pass a privacy law at the federal level,” Pugh writes. “While Congress should not pass a bad bill simply to fill the void, we do believe compromise is important and will require all sides to consider provisions that might not be ideal from their perspective. We also believe that all or nothing thinking is generally unnecessary when considering the provisions of a comprehensive privacy law.”

He said, “This is one of the reasons we are encouraged to see another bipartisan attempt to identify areas for both consensus and compromise.”