U.S. House of Representatives Passes Bill to Protect Transferee Sensitive Data

On 18 January, the U.S. House of Representatives by voice vote passed the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act (MAPPA) (H.R. 1568). 

On 18 January, the U.S. House of Representatives by voice vote passed the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act (MAPPA) (H.R. 1568). The House bill will now be sent to the U.S. Senate for its final consideration and, if passed by the Senate, will then go to the president for his signature. 

Passage of MAPPA by the House is the latest milestone in a nearly decade long effort by WERC, our industry partners, and the bill’s champions toward addressing an existing loophole in U.S. law that puts at risk sensitive personally identifiable information of transferees that ship household goods through a U.S. seaport. With House passage, this is the first time that MAPPA has been approved by both chambers during the same Congressional term.

“WERC commends the U.S. House of Representatives in approving the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act (H.R. 1568). MAPPA addresses a significant threat to the personal information of military, federal, and private sector transferees moving their household goods through a U.S. seaport,” said Michael T. Jackson, WERC’s vice president of membership and public policy.

“We applaud the House and Ways and Means Committee leadership for their support in moving this bill through the chamber under a suspension of the rules. Passage of this bill also would not have been possible without the strong leadership of Congressmen Mike Waltz and Bill Pascrell in championing H.R. 1568, and we thank them for all their efforts to advance this bill. We now urge the U.S. Senate to promptly take up and approve H.R. 1568 and bring resolution to this risk to the personal data of transferees,” Jackson said.

The House passed MAPPA under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority vote in favor of passage and the bill cannot be amended. On 2 November 2023, the House Ways and Means Committee had reported out the bill favorably by a vote of 41 to zero. On 9 March of last year, the U.S. Senate had passed their version of MAPPA (S. 758) through unanimous consent, but because the bill amends the Tariff Act of 1930, a revenue statute, the bill must originate in the House. 

WERC has already been in discussions with the Senate and House bill champions and our industry partners to request Senate leadership bring H.R. 1568 to a swift vote. Senators Steve Daines (R-MT), Roger Marshall (R-MS), Gary Peters (D-MI), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) have been leading the fight in the Senate with the successful passage of S. 758 and are now pushing for the Senate to finish the job with enactment of H.R. 1568.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is required to sell the manifest data on vessel shipments into the U.S. to data brokerage firms that post the information online to paid subscribers. Making public the personally identifiable information (PII) of the transferee, including military personnel, exposes them to identity theft, fraud, and unwanted solicitations. 

While it is not the intent of the CBP to release the sensitive data of individuals, the manifests currently provided to data brokers often include the PII of transferees and military personnel shipping household goods the U.S. The data brokers post the manifest information online to provide an analysis and trends on shipments not intending to expose the PII of transferees. 

For nearly 10 years, WERC, along with the American Trucking Association and the International Association of Movers (IAM) and more recently the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and Senior Executives Association (SEA), have supported efforts to protect the PII of military personnel and transferees. The Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act would require the Secretary of the Treasury to remove the PII of individuals before making the manifests available to data brokers, thereby correcting the oversight.

Tristan North is the government affairs adviser for WERC.