10 House Commerce Republicans Object to FCC Data Breach Rules Violating 2017 CRA Rescission
Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida and nine other House Commerce Committee Republicans had urged the FCC ahead of its Wednesday meeting against approving data breach notification rules that would sidestep a 2017 Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval that rescinded…
similar regulations as part of the commission's 2016 ISP privacy order (see 1704030054). FCC Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington raised the CRA issue in their dissents against the data breach rules that the commission approved Wednesday 3-2 (see 2312130019). "These rules are substantially the same as those Congress disapproved of" in the ISP privacy order, Cammack and the other Republicans said in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel released Wednesday. "Therefore, it would be unlawful for the FCC to adopt these new rules." They cited "requirements for notification, content of customer notification, and recordkeeping," which "largely mirror" elements of the 2016 rules. "Given these similarities, we are shocked that the FCC is attempting to revive these rules after Congress explicitly rejected them," the lawmakers said. When "Congress overrules an agency, that action is final; no agency has the power to ignore the plain meaning of a Congressional statute."