Congress Must Act To Stop Endless Data Breaches

Congress Must Make Data Protection Mandatory The United States is experiencing a relentless wave of data breaches that expose Americans’ personal, financial, and medical information, often multiple times per year, with little real accountability for the companies responsible. Congress must act now to impose strong federal privacy protections and meaningful punitive penalties, because current law makes it cheaper for companies to neglect security and pay for post-breach monitoring than to prevent breaches in the first place. Congress Must Address The Human Cost Of Repeated Breaches Americans are repeatedly notified that their sensitive data has been compromised through no fault of their own. These notices have become routine, yet the consequences for negligent companies remain modest and inconsistent. The predictable result is chronic underinvestment in security and overreliance on after-the-fact remedies that do nothing to undo identity theft, financial harm, or permanent loss of privacy. Congress Must Enact A Unified Federal Data Protection Law A core failure is the absence of a comprehensive federal data privacy law with enforceable minimum security standards. Instead, companies operate under a fragmented patchwork of state laws and limited federal oversight, allowing weak practices to persist across industries that collect and retain vast quantities of personal data. Congress Must Require Prevention Rather Than Remediation Any effective federal framework must require robust preventive safeguards, including strong encryption, multi-factor authentication, regular security audits, and strict limits on unnecessary data collection and retention. These obligations must be mandatory, not voluntary, and must scale with the sensitivity and volume of data collected. Congress Must Impose Punitive Fines That Deter Negligence Enforcement must include significant punitive fines tied to a meaningful percentage of company revenue when failures occur due to inadequate safeguards. Penalties that amount to a cost of doing business do not change behavior. Without real financial consequences, repeated breaches are inevitable. Congress Must Provide Real Enforcement And Remedies Individuals harmed by negligent data practices should have meaningful legal remedies, including a private right of action. Federal oversight authority must also be clear, well funded, and empowered to investigate and penalize violations consistently across all sectors, whether through strengthened authority for the Federal Trade Commission or a dedicated data protection agency. Congress must act now to protect Americans’ privacy, reduce preventable harm, and restore public trust in the digital economy. Failure to act will normalize a system in which personal data is treated as expendable and accountability remains optional.