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To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to disseminate guidance regarding certain best practices relating to the handling of personally identifiable information, and for other purposes.
Summary
The PROTECT Act (Providing Resources and Oversight to Ensure Confidentiality of Those who serve Act) requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop and disseminate guidance on best practices for handling personally identifiable information of government and private sector employees, officers, officials, and contractors. The guidance must be disseminated to federal, state, and local government agencies as well as appropriate private sector entities within one year of the bill's enactment and then updated every four years. The guidance should address how to properly handle personal information of these individuals and what actions they can take to protect their safety. The bill defines personally identifiable information broadly to include any information that can directly or indirectly identify an individual, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
3 cosponsors
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to J. French Hill’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for J. French Hill → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Apr 27, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. · house
- Apr 27, 2026 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 27, 2026
Mr. Hill of Arkansas (for himself and Mr. Goldman of New York) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to disseminate guidance regarding certain best practices relating to the handling of personally identifiable information, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Providing Resources and Oversight to Ensure Confidentiality of Those who serve Act” or the “PROTECT Act”.
SEC. 2. DISSEMINATION OF DHS GUIDANCE REGARDING CERTAIN BEST PRACTICES RELATING TO THE HANDLING OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION.
(a) In General.—Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act and quadrennially thereafter, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall disseminate to Federal, State, and local government agencies and appropriate private sector entities guidance regarding best practices regarding the following:
(1) The handling by such agencies and entities of personally identifiable information of officers, officials, employees, and contractors of such agencies.
(2) Actions such officers, officials, and employees can take to ensure their safety.
(b) Definition.—In this section, the term “personally identifiable information” means any information that permits the identity of an individual to be directly or indirectly inferred, including any other information that is linked or linkable to such individual, regardless of whether such individual is a United States citizen, lawful permanent resident, or visitor to the United States. <all>
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