Pa. Privacy Bill's Bipartisan Appeal Could Help It Become Law: Fisher Phillips
This year’s Pennsylvania comprehensive privacy bill might have a shot of becoming law despite a similar bill’s failure last year, Fisher Phillips lawyers blogged Monday.
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The Pennsylvania House passed HB-78 in a bipartisan 127-76 vote on Oct. 1 (see 2510020029). The bill, which despite notable applicability thresholds and categories of sensitive data, is largely like most state privacy laws outside California and Maryland (see 2510020029). It's pending in the Senate Consumer Protection Committee. Pennsylvania’s legislative session ends Dec. 31.
“A big question remains: will HB 78 suffer the same fate as last year’s HB 1201?” asked Fisher Phillips privacy attorneys Risa Boerner and Catherine Contino. HB-1201, the Pennsylvania privacy bill from last year, “also received bipartisan support but ultimately stalled out in the Senate,” they noted.
“This year’s HB 78 seems to balance consumer preference while providing safeguards and protections for businesses, which should be appealing to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle,” wrote Boerner and Contino. “While [Gov. Josh Shapiro (D)] has not commented on the bill, his past actions may indicate his potential support for it.”
When he was the state’s attorney general, “Shapiro directed the office to investigate many high-profile data breaches,” the lawyers noted. “As governor, he has supported updating data breach notification and security requirements, and he has signed regulations securing insurance data.”
The bill will need continued bipartisan support, since Pennsylvania has a divided government: Democrats control the House and the governor’s office, while Republicans control the Senate, where the bill next needs approval.