[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 198 (Monday, November 15, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1231]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





          PROTECTING PRIVACY AND ENHANCING DIGITAL COMPETITION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 15, 2021

  Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, I wish to raise the need for congressional 
action in two areas that are critical for the privacy rights of 
Americans and the economic competitiveness of American companies and 
startups. We need a comprehensive privacy law to protect Americans in 
commercial contexts, and we need to reform surveillance laws relating 
to government collection of personal information.
  As a Representative of Silicon Valley, I'm proud of the countless 
innovations my constituents have brought forward that improve the lives 
of billions of people, but I also recognize that our country needs a 
comprehensive privacy law. In November 2019, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren 
and I first introduced the Online Privacy Act to protect individuals, 
encourage innovation, and take a major step towards restoring trust in 
technology. We are preparing to reintroduce this bill in the coming 
days. Our legislation creates privacy rights for users, places clear 
privacy obligations on companies, establishes a Digital Privacy Agency 
(DPA) to enforce privacy protections and investigate abuses, and 
strengthens enforcement by empowering state attorneys general to 
enforce privacy violations and allowing individuals to appoint 
nonprofits to represent them in private class-action lawsuits. 
Importantly, the U.S. is the only industrialized country that lacks an 
agency focused on privacy law. Our legislation fixes that issue.
  We must also reconsider laws that authorize the Intelligence 
Community to collect and process personal information. Having served 
for nearly a decade on the House Permanent Select Committee on 
Intelligence, I have a deep regard for our national security needs. 
However, I also recognize how our needs have evolved and how 
authorizations Congress enacted two decades ago have been abused. 
Specifically, we must limit the collection and retention of 
surveillance data under Executive Order 12333 regarding intelligence 
surveillance and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance 
Act (FISA). I've joined proposals to reform these laws in the past and 
I believe Congress must prioritize these issues, not only to protect 
privacy but also because they directly impact our economy.
  In 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) struck down an agreement 
between the U.S. and EU known as Safe Harbor. In explaining its 
decision to invalidate the agreement, the Court cited concerns with 
lack of judicial redress and EU citizens' fundamental rights to 
privacy, codified in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. In response 
to the invalidation of this agreement, the U.S. and EU came to another 
data agreement known as Privacy Shield with stronger privacy 
protections. In July 2020 the ECJ struck down this agreement too, again 
due to the breadth of U.S. surveillance laws. Plainly put, the ECJ 
ruling highlights that EU citizens--and Americans--cannot easily 
challenge the uses of their data by our Intelligence Community using 
our judicial system. The decision harms U.S. companies by creating 
uncertainty in the market and restricting access to data that many 
small businesses, startups, and other companies rely on to remain 
competitive.
  I have joined efforts by Representatives Lofgren and Massie to reform 
Section 702 of FISA to prohibit the warrantless search of online 
communications and prohibit the federal government from pressuring 
companies to build encryption ``backdoors,'' and I intend to keep 
fighting for these needed reforms.
  I urge my colleagues to pass legislative reforms to surveillance laws 
that respect privacy and enable American economic competitiveness, 
while also respecting our national security needs. We must devote our 
energies to achieving these objectives.

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