As has been clear for some time, China is in our business. Literally and figuratively. It’s generally agreed the Chinese Communist Party has spent billions underwriting the activities of companies in the PRC’s tech and telecommunications sector since the beginning of the century.
If that weren’t bad enough, the PRC’s snooping into U.S. databases and websites has increased exponentially. Beijing is stealing U.S. intellectual property and personal data at an alarming rate, yet President Joe Biden and his administration refuse to make their protection a national priority.
Rather than address the issue and invest in protective infrastructure, he’s talking tough and imposing Trump-like tariffs on imports coming to the U.S. from China. If you want inflation to continue to rise, that’s helpful, but it doesn’t do much to help our country compete with China.
Some things can be done to support America’s interests on the global stage, and we must look to Congress to do them. Unfortunately, the Republicans who control the House have started down a road that would undermine that goal.
Washington State GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who can almost always be counted on to do the right thing, is asking the House Energy and Commerce Committee – which she chairs – to move a bill she wrote to the House floor.
While McMorris Rodgers claims her American Privacy Rights Act would protect Americans’ sensitive data, in reality, it would hamstring U.S. companies competing with China. The bill includes several problematic provisions that would hamper innovation, the worst of which would establish a private right of action that would give liberals the power to sue companies when they object to their policies.
Establishing a private right of action encourages progressives to pursue what they cannot win through elections in the courts. The lawsuits they could file could bankrupt start-up companies, severely damage the bottom line of established firms, and generally be a dagger to the heart of American creativity and ingenuity.
If the American Privacy Rights Act were to become law as drafted, American industry would be forced to look askance at new technologies that could keep them competitive against businesses in Europe, the Middle East, and especially China.
The McMorris Rodgers’ draft bill would also empower the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to use the rulemaking process to resolve a number of questions that Congress has allowed to remain unanswered. This would allow the agency to accrue more power for itself. The FTC doesn’t need more power, especially considering how Lina Khan, Biden’s choice to chair the commission, has attempted to stretch the power of her office and agency in many ways.
Much of what Khan has tried to do, the courts have stopped. So far. No one can count on that lasting forever, making it a mistake to give the FTC more power than Congress already gave it.
The Biden Administration makes no secret of its intention to pick who the winners in the marketplace will be. Its representatives have even encouraged other countries to block mergers involving U.S. companies that Khan and others oppose but can’t find a way to stop legitimately.
All this comes at a dangerous time. America leads China in AI, but narrowly. The CCP might soon find a way to overtake the U.S. The approach McMorris Rodgers lays out in her legislation would do more to help that happen than it would to block it.
Something must be done. McMorris Rodgers, who is retiring at the end of her current term, was right when she said America must guarantee the online privacy rights of all Americans are protected, something every Republican, Democrat, and industry leader can agree is true.
Up to now, she’s been a stalwart in that regard. It would be a shame to let a few poorly conceived provisions in a legislative package taint her legacy as a defender of privacy.
Establishing practical federal online privacy standards that respect First Amendment protections and national security concerns while setting the stage for considerable economic growth would be a mighty achievement. On her way out the door, McMorris Rodgers has been shepherding a suite of legislation meant to do that through Congress. Her intentions are good, but that’s not enough. Unless the bill is substantively changed, the American Privacy Rights Act should advance no further, and her colleagues should steer clear.
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