There seems to be growing consensus on the need for a US federal privacy law along the lines of Europe’s GDPR. There is now bipartisan support in Congress, with Republicans and Democrats alike in favor of legislation.

They don’t, however, agree on the best way to go about it …

Reuters reports on the conflict.

In other words, the Democratic view is that Congress should give the FTC powers to make and enforce privacy rules, while the Republican view is that the legislative branch should create the rules, and the FTC should simply be empowered to enforce them.

Subcommittee Chairwoman Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat, was one of several people who favored increased funding for the Federal Trade Commission as well as stronger rule-making authority as part of a bill to protect users’ privacy online.

The top Republican on the panel, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, also said that she would support a national standard for data privacy and wanted to hold companies accountable for violations.

But she worried about giving more power to the agency, saying she did not want to the FTC to be converted into “a massive rule-making regime.”

The FTC itself just wants its brief to be as clear and specific as possible.

Passing privacy legislation ought to be simple. It’s not only backed by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, but also by tech giants like Apple, Google and Facebook. While the latter two companies might be expected to oppose restrictions on their use of personal data, the prevailing view in Silicon Valley appears to be that it’s better to know what they can and can’t do and be able to make plans on that basis.

Simons asked for enhanced rule-making authority for the agency to enforce any privacy legislation but pressed for it to be limited to the one issue.

“Please do not do it. Do not give us broad rule-making authority. Give us targeted rule-making authority,” he said. “The last thing that we want is for you to dump that question on us.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook has praised Europe’s adoption of GDPR – the toughest privacy laws ever created – and said that the US should follow this lead.

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