House adopts conference report on genetic data privacy bill with 30-day cure period for businesses

The House adopted the committee-of-conference report on House Bill 639, an act relating to genetic data privacy, after a motion to suspend the rules to take up the bill for immediate consideration was approved by voice vote.

Member from Jericho, a conferee on the bill, told the chamber the House and Senate had negotiated competing approaches to a cure period for compliance violations. “We went to — the House proposed a 60-day cure period on actions that are curable, such as displaying a privacy notice,” the Member from Jericho said. “The Senate pushed back and said they wanted a 60-day cure period for the whole thing. We ended up meeting sort of in the middle. We agreed with them on a 30-day cure period for all of the business activities of these genetic data privacy businesses.”

Under the conference agreement described on the floor, that 30-day cure period will remain in effect for 18 months and then expire; the bill’s stated effective date is Jan. 1, 2027, and the cure-period provision will be repealed on June 30, 2028. The Member from Jericho emphasized that the House had originally sought a cure limited to curable actions and that the conference reflected compromise with the Senate.

The clerk had emailed the committee-of-conference report to members and posted paper copies at the main table; after floor explanation members voted by voice to adopt the report and the Speaker announced the report was adopted.

Actions and next steps recorded in the session show the House adopted the conference report and no further procedural actions were taken on H.639 during this sitting. If any implementing rules or administrative guidance are required under the bill, the transcript on this day did not detail them.

The House then moved on to other business and adjourned for the day.