Hill Hearings to Explore Path to Federal Privacy Law

House and Senate lawmakers are set to ramp up efforts to develop a broad federal data privacy law with a pair of hearings.

Tech companies, retailers and privacy advocates are pushing Congress to enact a sweeping law following a series of high-profile data scandals involving Facebook Inc., Equifax Inc. and other companies. A main issue facing lawmakers is whether to craft a law that pre-empts state privacy laws and give more authority to the Federal Trade Commission to police companies.

The Business Roundtable, a pro-business lobbying group, and civil rights group Color of Change are among the groups scheduled to ...