A behind-the-scenes dispute over the political makeup of a House and Senate conference committee is dimming any chance of a bill to overhaul the financial services industry containing several controversial privacy protections from being passed by year’s end.
The dispute, stemming from the appointment of more House Democrats than Republicans to the panel, is giving representatives of the direct marketing and financial services industries as well as the medical profession to press legislators to remove some of the more controversial privacy protection provisions in the Financial Services Act the House approved in July which were not in the measure the Senate approved two months earlier.
They include a ban on the dissemination of encrypted credit card and bank account numbers and personal medical information without written permission.
The prohibition against the dissemination of encrypted credit card numbers without a consumer’s written permission was a last-minute addition to the House bill.
“That dispute is giving us more time to work on removing a prohibition from the use of encrypted credit card number from the bill,” says Richard A. Barton, the Direct Marketing Association’s senior vice president, Congressional affairs.
He did, however, predict that the controversial provisions relating to the use of personal financial and medical information in the bill would be dropped and reintroduced next year as a separate measure.
According to sources close to the conference committee, its chairman, Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX) is protesting the appointment of more House Democrats than Republicans to the 50-member panel claiming it as a violation of Congressional conference committee rules.
As a result, Gramm, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, has reportedly refused to schedule a session for the panel to blend the House and Senate versions of the measure into a single bill for passage by both chambers.
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