Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee, supported passage of H.R. 7520, the Protecting Americans' Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024, bipartisan legislation she co-led to prohibit data brokers from selling Americans’ sensitive data to foreign adversaries. The measure passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee in early March with a bipartisan 50-0 vote.

“Data brokers have recklessly engaged in invasive data trafficking activities that violate our privacy and, in cases where Americans’ data is sold to foreign adversaries, pose a direct threat to our national security,” said Congresswoman Trahan. “This bipartisan legislation is an important first step in reining in the shady and often negligent practices of data brokers. However, it would be a mistake to stop here. We must build on this progress by passing legislation like the DELETE Act to give every American the right to have data brokers delete and stop collecting their data. We should not leave any decision over our personal, sensitive data to data brokers who have shown such blatant disregard in how they handle it.”

H.R. 7520 seeks to prohibit data brokers, companies that harvest and sell people’s data, from selling, licensing, transferring, releasing, or disclosing Americans’ personally identifiable data to foreign adversaries or any organization controlled by a foreign adversary. Types of personally identifiable information include social security numbers, financial account numbers, genetic information, precise location data, and private communications. The legislation was introduced by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA-05) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ-06) and co-led by Trahan as well as Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee Chair Gus M. Bilirakis (R-FL-12) and Ranking Member Janice D. Schakowsky (D-IL-09).

Trahan has been sounding the alarm for years about the dangers of data brokers, including their reckless handling of Americans’ sensitive data. In February 2022, she spearheaded the introduction of the bipartisan DELETE Act, which would create a system for individuals to request all data brokers delete any personal data the broker may have collected and to not collect it in the future. Later that year, following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Trahan led a request to four of the largest data brokers in the nation demanding answers on their handling of women’s reproductive health data. During the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s markup of H.R. 7520 earlier this month, Trahan also urged committee leaders to work with her to pass her legislation to give Americans’ greater control over their data, including the right to have their data deleted by data brokers upon request.

The Protecting Americans' Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024 now moves to the Senate for consideration.

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