EPIC and Coalition Renew Calls on Congress to Oppose Bad Financial Privacy Bill 

On April 21, 2026, EPIC, the National Consumer Law Center, and UnidosUS, joined by a coalition of 42 other civil society organizations, sent a letter to the House Financial Services Committee to oppose a draft bill that would amend the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). The letter urges the committee not to advance the discussion draft because it is “both inadequate and harmful to consumer protection.” The letter points out four main problems with the discussion draft: 

• It would expand the GLBA’s ineffective notice-and-choice framework, which puts the burden on consumers rather than financial institutions to protect financial privacy; 
• It includes a weak, overly broad data minimization standard that would not protect consumers’ privacy; 
• It does not include a private right of action that would allow consumers to seek redress for financial harm they experience due to violations of the law; and  
• It would preempt stronger state privacy and data security provisions related to financial privacy. 

In addition to this letter, EPIC also submitted a statement for the record to the House Financial Services Committee’s March 17 hearing on “Updating America’s Financial Privacy Framework for the 21st Century”, when the discussion draft was first introduced.  

EPIC routinely advocates for strong financial privacy protections for consumers. In September 2025, EPIC, the National Consumer Law Center, and a coalition of other civil society organizations sent a letter and filed a comment with the House Financial Services Committee providing recommendations to strengthen financial privacy and security. In January 2024, EPIC filed comments with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in support of the proposed Personal Financial Data Right rules. The Personal Financial Data Rights rules are now being reconsidered by the CFPB, and, in October 2025, EPIC filed a comment urging the CFPB to maintain the strong privacy protections included in the previously finalized rule. EPIC also filed comments in support of the CFPB’s proposals related to medical debt and comments on the CFPB’s now withdrawn proposed revisions to Fair Credit Reporting Act rules, which among other changes would have clarified that data brokers must comply with FCRA. In December 2024, EPIC Executive Director Alan Butler testified before the House Financial Services Committee in a hearing entitled: “Innovation Revolution: How Technology is Shaping the Future of Finance.”