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As states move forward with their own digital privacy laws in the absence of federal regulation, Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., is reintroducing a bill aimed at creating a national standard for digital privacy rights.

The bill comes about a week after Virginia’s governor signed the state’s own privacy legislation into law, making it the second state in the nation after California to ensure such rights. But DelBene’s bill would preempt it and other state laws to create a uniform standard across the U.S.

That sets her proposal apart from several other Democratic bills that explicitly allow for states to have their own digital privacy laws so that they may build on the protections of a federal standard. But DelBene stressed in a virtual meeting with reporters last month that a state-by-state decision would be too confusing and onerous for both consumers and small businesses.

“I understand why states are moving forward in the absence of the federal government moving, but I think it is much better to have a federal law versus a patchwork of laws,” she said, adding that small businesses that don’t work strictly in the tech space will also be subject to the same data protection standards for their customers. That includes companies like those that process credit card transactions and have online storefronts.

DelBene’s bill seeks to preserve room for innovation and for emerging businesses to grow by exempting small businesses from regular audits of their privacy practices. DelBene’s staff based the threshold off of real-world data with the idea that a small local coffee shop shouldn’t necessarily be subject to a burdensome audit.

The bill is fairly focused on the most essential privacy protections, with stricter guidelines for sensitive data like Social Security numbers and health data than for less sensitive information like names and emails. For example, under the bill, consumers must explicitly opt in to allowing a company to sell or share their sensitive personal information, while they can opt out of the sharing of their nonsensitive personal information.

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