House Republican criticizes Dems for not rallying behind privacy bill

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) chastised Democrats on Wednesday for not rallying around her internet privacy bill, after they criticized the GOP’s efforts to kill privacy restrictions earlier this year.

At a House Commerce technology subcommittee hearing on broadband coverage, Democrats criticized the committee’s leadership for not holding hearings on net neutrality, internet privacy or oversight for the FCC.

“I will say to my colleagues that I would be happy to discuss my Browser Act on the privacy issue, and we have reached out to all of the Democratic offices in the House on this issue,” Blackburn responded, adding that she was “disappointed” by the lack of response to her outreach.

{mosads}In April, President Trump signed a resolution repealing a set of internet privacy rules passed by the FCC last year that would have required internet service providers to get consumer’s permission before sharing their data with advertisers.

Since then, Blackburn, the chair of the technology subcommittee, has introduced legislation called the Browser Act that would impose similar restrictions on both ISPs and web-based companies like Facebook and Google.

The bill has yet to gain support from Democrats, who are still outraged by the privacy repeal bill and the FCC’s efforts to roll back its Obama-era net neutrality regulations.

“I’m not going to be naive enough to assume that the FCC, on a partisan vote, isn’t going to get rid of net neutrality — I think that’s clear,” Rep Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) said at the hearing. “But regardless, there’s no reason we can’t have hearings on both of these issues.”