Washington state privacy bill dead...for now

OLYMPIA, Wash - Like Frankenstein's monster, Washington state's privacy bill was created, pieced together, stitched up, brought back to life, and now has died. After lobbyists, the legislature and the attorney general spent months trying to breathe life into a huge privacy bill, it "was stymied by out of state interests," said Brian Smith, consumer specialist in the State Attorney General's office. Hoping to finish by the March 9 deadline, people interested in the bill met right up until the last minute trying to work out an acceptable compromise. Squabbling legislators didn't help. During a press conference, a senator said she would ask the legislature to put a privacy bill on the ballot as a legislative referendum. At that, the House co-speaker Rep. Clyde Ballard (R-12)-with a tie between Republicans and Democrats in the House the Speakership is shared-said the bill was even less likely to leave the House. "We are calling for a (House) vote on this," Smith said. "The consumers of this state have demanded and want more control over their private data. We will continue to press for this bill, because we believe it needs a vote." In fact, the bill did move successfully out of the state Senate, but was being bottlenecked in the House. The deal breaker, as correctly predicted by Washington Credit Union League Vice President for Governmental Affairs Stacy Augustine, was the issue of sharing information between affiliates. Last Fall, Attorney General Christine Gregoire asked Augustine to head the Best Practices Subcommittee of the AG's Consumer Privacy Rights Task Force, which was charged with writing a privacy bill in a form acceptable to all. Augustine said credit union executives she talked to support privacy initiatives for protection of their members, but she wanted to protect their ability to share information with other entities. The Attorney General's office worked with stakeholders and got a compromise. "It didn't have everything we wanted, but was going to be a good strong start," Smith said.. Still, no one is willing to pull the shroud up over the bill's head yet. Governor Gary Locke called the legislature back into a special session at midnight on March 9. After all, a budget had not yet been adopted and several other major bills rank higher than the privacy bill are waiting in the wings - though there is little hope for them either. So, the suspense continues...is the monster gone? Or just in hiding? Stay tuned. -mcintyre@viclink.com