WASHINGTON – The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the global voice of the tech sector, released the following statement from President and CEO Dean Garfield today after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bipartisan Judicial Redress Act (H.R. 1428). Garfield and other ITI executives are in Europe meeting with government officials as the negotiations between the United States and European Union (EU) enter their final phase to reach a new data sharing protocol after the Safe Harbor agreement was invalidated:

“We thank members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for approving the bill with strong bipartisan support and urge lawmakers to quickly pass the Judicial Redress Act to improve national security and our collective economies,” said ITI President and CEO Dean Garfield. “In meetings with European policymakers this week we repeatedly heard how important the Judicial Redress Act is to rebuilding confidence in the flow of digital information over the Internet that underpins the half-trillion dollar U.S.-EU trade relationship. Many of our allies in Europe already extend similar protections to U.S. citizens, so Congress passing the Judicial Redress Act into law demonstrates that the United States appropriately respects the privacy individuals. We are also hopeful that passage will create additional momentum towards reaching a strong data-flows agreement between the U.S. and EU.”

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a companion bill last year and ITI has emphasized to Senators that the Judicial Redress Act is an important priority for the tech industry. On October 6, 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union effectively invalidated the Safe Harbor Framework, which for 15 years had enabled thousands of companies to provide data services for their customers and to conduct their own operations. The European Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce are in ongoing talks to negotiate a revised Safe Harbor agreement by the January 31, 2016, deadline set out by European Union (EU) Member State data protection authorities.

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