SECURE Data Act: Follow the Money Behind H.R. 8413
There is a federal privacy bill moving through Congress right now, and its name sounds reassuring: the SECURE Data Act. The reality is the opposite. H.R. 8413 would replace the patchwork of state privacy laws with a single, weaker national standard — no right for individuals to sue, broad preemption of stronger state protections, and a structure that data brokers and ad-tech firms have lobbied toward for years.
At Priwall by mePrism, we help people remove their personal information from the data brokers this bill would protect. So we did what we always do: we followed the money. This is what the public record shows about who is funding the SECURE Data Act, how much the data industry has spent lobbying for it, and why it matters for anyone who wants control over their own data. To understand how we track exposure across 700+ data brokers and people-search sites, see our methodology.
What is the SECURE Data Act (H.R. 8413)?
The SECURE Data Act (H.R. 8413) was introduced on April 22, 2026 by Rep. John Joyce (R-PA), working alongside House Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY). It is the product of a Republican-only Privacy Working Group that solicited more than 250 written responses from over 170 organizations before producing the text (Mayer Brown). The bill received its first subcommittee hearing on June 3, 2026 (StateScoop).
Two features define the bill — and explain why the data industry is so eager to see it pass:
Broad federal preemption. Using a sweeping "relates to" standard, the bill would override existing state privacy laws (IAPP). One weak rule replaces fifty stronger ones.
No private right of action. Enforcement runs only through the FTC and state attorneys general, with a 45-day "cure period" for violators and a repeal of the Video Privacy Protection Act (Mayer Brown). You would have no power to sue a company that mishandles your data.
The bill has zero Democratic cosponsors. A Senate companion, S. 4211, was introduced March 25, 2026 by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) (govinfo), and a financial-services version — the GUARD Financial Data Act — is carried by Reps. French Hill (AR), Bill Huizenga (MI), and Bryan Steil (WI) (Energy & Commerce Committee).
Why privacy advocates call it a downgrade
At the June 3 hearing, the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Caitriona Fitzgerald testified that the bill is "weaker than the weakest state law," and the Center for Democracy & Technology warned of "easily exploitable loopholes" (StateScoop). California Privacy Protection Agency officials argued the bill would effectively kill California's Delete Act and its forthcoming DROP platform — the one-step deletion tool that lets you, or an authorized privacy agent acting on your behalf, remove your data from brokers at scale. Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said the bill "protects corporations... not people's privacy" (StateScoop).
That is the heart of the problem. The strongest consumer protections in America today live in state law. This bill would erase them and put a weaker federal floor in their place.
The lobbying money behind the SECURE Data Act
Federal lobbying hit a record $4.4 billion in 2024. The communications/electronics sector alone spent $585.7 million, and the finance/insurance/real-estate sector spent $636.4 million — the two sectors most directly affected by data-privacy rules (OpenSecrets).
Within that total, the firms whose entire business model depends on selling and analyzing your personal data have been among the most persistent lobbyists on privacy legislation:
Sources: OpenSecrets, CyberScoop, Politico.
Data brokers in particular surge their lobbying around every federal privacy push. RELX, the parent of LexisNexis, has repeatedly raised concerns about restrictions on third-party data used for "public safety" — notable because LexisNexis holds a roughly $22 million data contract with ICE, a vivid illustration of how broker databases feed government surveillance (CyberScoop ). This is the same "data broker loophole" we wrote about in The Digital Panopticon: the government buying from brokers what it would otherwise need a warrant to obtain.
The coalition that endorsed the bill on day one
On the day of the June 3 hearing, the entire telecom and tech-platform lobby lined up behind the bill. INCOMPAS led a multi-association support letter signed by INCOMPAS, CCIA, the Consumer Technology Association, NCTA, NetChoice, SIIA, TechNet, and USTelecom (INCOMPAS ). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued its own statement of support the same day (U.S.Chamber), and Americans for Tax Reform organized a 24-group letter urging the committee to advance it (Americans for Tax Reform). The ad-industry-funded Privacy for America campaign is running a dedicated H.R. 8413 push (Privacy for America).
A prior analysis of 37 coalition supporters found they spent approximately $276.4 million on total federal lobbying in 2024 — led by the National Association of Realtors ($86.4M), the U.S. Chamber ($76.3M), the Business Roundtable ($23.4M), CTIA ($17.3M), and NCTA ($14.2M) ( OpenSecrets). Those totals cover each group's full agenda, not privacy alone — but they show the institutional weight aligned behind one bill.
Who funds the legislators carrying it
The lawmakers sponsoring the SECURE Data Act and its GUARD Act companion are heavily dependent on PAC money and draw notable contributions from the communications, finance, and data sectors the bill would govern.
Sources: OpenSecrets — Moran contributors, OpenSecrets — TransUnion PAC recipients.
Senate sponsor Jerry Moran's top donors read like a who's-who of the firms that benefit from weak privacy rules: Comcast ($53,900), Oracle ($51,000), DISH Network ($43,600), and — directly relevant to the preemption fight — the cable trade association NCTA at $40,000 (OpenSecrets). NCTA is one of the coalition groups publicly backing the House bill.
The single clearest data-broker-to-sponsor link in the public record runs through TransUnion. The TransUnion PAC contributed $10,000 each to French Hill and Bill Huizenga in the 2023– 2024 cycle (OpenSecrets). TransUnion is one of the three major credit-bureau data brokers whose business is directly regulated by financial-privacy rules — and it was simultaneously among the top data-broker lobbyists in early 2025. The two members it funded are the same two carrying the financial-data privacy bill that would govern it.
"Laboratories of capture": how the model was built
There is one more piece that closes the loop. The watchdog group Issue One documented in March 2026 how the tech lobby spent years drafting industry-friendly privacy laws at the state level to manufacture a template for a weak national standard. Its "Laboratories of Capture" report found that an Amazon lobbyist drafted the template behind Virginia's Consumer Data Protection Act — the very model the SECURE Data Act is "built on" (Issue One).
In other words: the "patchwork" of state laws the bill claims to fix was, in part, engineered by the same interests now offering the federal override. The industry helped write the problem, then sold Congress the solution.
What this means for you
We want to be precise about what the record does and does not show. It shows a clear, documented alignment of interests and a visible flow of money. It does not prove a quid pro quo — no filing shows a sponsor trading a vote for a check.
But the fit between the bill's design and its backers' interests is unmistakable. The data and technology industries spend tens of millions lobbying. The specific firms that profit from the unrestricted sale of your personal data are the same ones that endorsed H.R. 8413 on the day of its first hearing. And the bill's two most consequential features — preemption of stronger state laws and the removal of your right to sue — are the exact outcomes this coalition has lobbied toward for years.
For anyone who believes you should have an affirmative right to opt out — and to authorize a privacy agent to act on your behalf — the stakes are concrete. By preempting state law, this bill would override California's Delete Act and its DROP deletion platform, the very mechanisms that make large-scale data removal possible. It is the difference between a system where you hold the rights and one where only regulators do.
You do not have to wait for Congress to act. Priwall by mePrism removes your personal information from 700+ data brokers and people-search sites today, measures the reduction, and gives you a privacy exposure score you can track over time. The fewer brokers holding your data, the smaller your footprint — no matter what happens to H.R. 8413.
Sources: Mayer Brown · IAPP · StateScoop · Energy & Commerce Committee · govinfo (S. 4211) · OpenSecrets — 2024 lobbying record · OpenSecrets — Moran · OpenSecrets — TransUnion PAC · CyberScoop · Politico · INCOMPAS · U.S. Chamber · Americans for Tax Reform · Privacy for America · Issue One
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