Prepared Statement of Ranking Member Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Business Meeting
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Mr. Chairman,
The Location Privacy Protection Act is on the agenda for the first time. We have a request that it be held over.
I spoke with Sen. Franken yesterday and he agreed that we need to continue to work on this bill. His staff and mine have discussed some concerns that have been voiced by industry and the Department of Justice.
Almost all of the concerns I have heard of relate to the commercial portion of the bill, and not the domestic violence provisions.
I support the domestic violence provisions and believe they are important to helping ensure that technology is not used or abused to further domestic violence.
However, we need to work through the other concerns that have been raised.
Specifically, we need to work through some of the definitions to ensure they mean what we intend. We also have to examine the bill’s enforcement mechanism to make sure we don’t create unnecessary problems for litigants or the courts. Finally, we need to examine the impact the consent provisions will have on current and future technology.
These are important concerns that need to be addressed. All of us would agree that the last thing we want to do is stifle innovation and product development in a fast growing and evolving industry.
The bill’s still a work in progress, but hopefully we can reach some agreement by next week to deal with the various concerns we have heard from business, industry, and the Justice Department.
On the nominations, we can clear the entire list by a voice vote.
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