On Sunday 7 April 2024, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) released a discussion draft for a bipartisan proposal for the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA), which could result in the first national comprehensive data privacy framework in the United States.

The proposal marks a breakthrough in the long-standing stalemate on developing a national online privacy standard, even as lawmakers and industry groups alike have regularly discussed the need for such a law.Until now, the impasse has remained deadlocked while the European Union passed the landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, which has become the de-facto standard worldwide.