It’s time to pass the SECURE Data Act
It’s time to pass the SECURE Data Act
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/op-eds/4600995/time-to-pass-secure-data-act/
Publish Date: 2026-06-10 08:00:00
Source Domain: www.washingtonexaminer.com
For more than a decade, American businesses have been calling on Congress to pick a lane on data privacy: a clear, national framework. Congress failed to pass a workable approach, so states stepped in, and most have taken a constructive approach. But right now, nearly half of Americans still have no comprehensive privacy protections, and small businesses are stuck guessing which laws apply to them. The SECURE Data Act, recently introduced in Congress, would protect all of the public and provide businesses the certainty they’ve been waiting for.
Twenty states representing more than 135 million people have enacted the Consensus Privacy Approach. Governors of both parties, from Greg Abbott (R-TX) to Democrat Tim Walz (D-MI), have signed these bills into law. Across those 20 state legislatures, the Consensus Privacy Approach garnered nearly 1,500 Republican votes and more than 1,100 Democratic votes, proving that this isn’t a partisan policy.
Now, Congress has a chance to build on that foundation with the SECURE Data Act. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce strongly supports this legislation because it reflects what states have already built and improves it.
POLICE SURVEILLANCE IS NOT JUST FOR EMERGENCIES, NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY
Built on bipartisan consensus
Critics wrongly claim that a federal law that creates a single national standard would be a “race to the bottom.” The SECURE Data Act dismantles that argument. Instead of rolling back what states have done, it codifies the very framework that states across the ideological spectrum agreed on, while extending privacy rights to 150 million people in states who currently lack them.
The bill ensures all Americans benefit from core privacy rights that nearly every state law includes, such as:
The right to know what data of yours a company has; the right to delete your personal information; the right to correct inaccuracies; and the right to opt out of having your data sold, used for targeted ads, or fed…
