Dem ‘hopeful’ Senate will tackle data breach bill after recess

The top Senate Democrat on a data security subcommittee is hoping his colleagues can get to work after the Memorial Day recess on a series of bills to protect consumers from the rash of data breaches plaguing the commercial sector.

“We’re all aiming at the same goal,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told The Hill Tuesday. “I’m very hopeful we can come together right after the recess.”

{mosads}The upper chamber is weighing a slate of bills that would require companies to notify customers when their information has been exposed by a breach. They would also set a series of nationwide data security standards.

Although a bipartisan majority of senators supports some form of legislation on the topic, settling on the specifics has been a challenge over the last few years.

Blumenthal serves as ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security.

The subpanel held a hearing in February to discuss data breach legislation, following a number of mammoth hacks at health insurers, retailers and banks that exposed hundreds of millions of consumers’ personal information.

“These attacks are real and they hurt real people, and companies and universities collecting sensitive consumer data have an obligation to do more to protect that information,” Blumenthal said at the hearing.

But the path forward for a bill is uncertain.

Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) are pushing one bill, while Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) has his own similar offering. Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) are also backing a related bill that would raise punishments for hacking in addition to setting data breach disclosure requirements. 

Blumenthal thinks they can reconcile all the data breach measures.

“I think there’s a real possibility for some joint consensus,” Blumenthal told The Hill.

While there was considerable momentum behind such a bill on the heels of the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack late last year, the enthusiasm has waned.

A number of more contentious debates, like surveillance reform, the Iran nuclear talks and a trade bill, have drawn attention away from data breach legislation.

The Senate is trying to settle each of these arguments before leaving town this weekend. Congress is off next week.

“I’ll know more [about data breach legislation] at the end of this week,” Blumenthal said. “There’s so much going on this week.”