Page 20 - NCISS Your Advocate April-Spring 2022

NCISS Town Hall
Lobbyit presented a legislative update to NCISS’ Town Hall. We gave updates on the Open Courts Act, the PRO Act, and
various data privacy proposals on Capitol Hill. We are available to answer any questions from NCISS members and
participants that weren't able to be asked during the virtual town hall.

Data Privacy Legislation
The Congressional situation related to privacy legislation remains relatively static. The one markup that we tracked was
the Senate Judiciary Committee’s markup of S. 2710, the Open App Markets Act by Sen. Blumenthal, which establishes
rules related to the operation of an app store by a covered company. The bill touches on privacy by preventing covered
companies from using non-public business information from a third party app to compete with that app.

Lobbyit continues to inquire with sources on Capitol Hill regarding planned hearings or markups and no specific activities
have been identified. Both sides of the House Energy and Commerce Committee remain tight-lipped about a committee
Democrat proposal related to privacy. This could indicate that the two sides are still negotiating and discussing the
issues at hand in good faith and may be getting closer to a markup on an overarching data privacy bill.

Continuing with the smattering of privacy-related bills that have already been introduced over the past few months, Sen.
Cassidy (R-LA) and Sen. Ossoff (D-GA) introduced the DELETE Act, which establishes a centralized system to allow
individuals to request the simultaneous deletion of their personal information across all data brokers. Lobbyit assesses
that this is something that could be accepted into an overarching data privacy bill. We are actively consulting Senate
staff about the bill’s prospects.

Open Courts Act
There has been no formal activity in Congress related to the Open Courts Act since our last report and since the NCISS
Town Hall. Lobbyit asseses that interested parties on Capitol Hill are continuing to work to ensure that the legislation
could appease Senate conservatives’ concerns and pass the Senate via unanimous consent.

PRO Act
Similarly, there has been no formal activity on the PRO Act, which seeks to tighten up the ability to classify workers as
independent contractors, since the stalling of the Build Back Better Act. However, Lobbyit has learned that President
Biden will push Congress to act on the PRO Act. The legislative reality, however, is that the PRO Act faces a difficult task
of gaining the 60 votes necessary in the Senate to avoid a legislative filibuster.

Looking Forward
Lobbyit continues to monitor the progress of the Open Courts Act. Looking forward, Lobbyit and NCISS will look to
schedule some informal virtual meetings with Senate Republican offices to introduce (or re-introduce) the association
and industry. These meetings won’t necessarily advocate for particular pieces of legislation, but will afford us an
opportunity to positively frame the industry, highlight the broader issue areas we care about, and offer NCISS as an
expert resource should those on Capitol Hill need input on anything they are working on that may impact our industry.

We also anticipate that the President’s remarks regarding the PRO Act may spur more chatter regarding the PRO Act and
we would not be surprised if progressive members of Congress talk more about the need for the PRO Act.