5 things to know about the bipartisan data privacy bill

The chairs of the House and Senate Commerce committees unveiled a discussion draft of a long-awaited bipartisan data privacy bill Sunday evening.  

Efforts to pass a comprehensive data privacy bill have failed in Congress for years, leaving the U.S. behind on protections as global regulators push ahead and state laws try to fill the gaps, creating a patchwork of regulations for tech companies to follow.  

Seizing on attention to the issue from mounting concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and social media platforms’ harms to children, the draft legislation released by House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) seeks to strike a balance to meet the sticking points both sides of the aisle raised in previous debates around data privacy proposals.