Richard Blumenthal

One of the ironies is that almost every day in the headlines and in the news we read about what the NSA is doing in the collection and use of data about citizens in this country who are protected by the Fourth Amendment.

I wouldn't want it to happen to me, but I know that it does.

One of our justices once defined the right of privacy as the right to be left alone.

I have joined Senator Warren in a bill that would prohibit the use of credit scores of job seekers in a discriminatory way during the hiring process.

The fact that it does is why we are here today, right?

Thank you for pursuing this profoundly important issue with such far-ranging consequences for both good and ill in our society.

Consumers deserve transparency about how their data is used.

I think you need to recognize that others could use it for that purpose.

There is now an industry involved in this very far-reaching and far-ranging collection, use, and marketing of data.

I think we have a responsibility to impose responsibility so as to alleviate those costs where they are truly frivolous.

I am wary of overkill. I am wary of unintended consequences and of limiting rights without knowing what the end results are going to be.

The letter that they sent me said this provision would unnecessarily increase the cost of litigation.

It strikes me when we try to take the high-altitude long view of this, we are talking about access to our government.

I believe the goal is to create a chilling effect on trolls who are misusing and abusing the system.

This is clearly high-stakes legal poker when we are talking about this.

I understand that innocent players are hurt by the costs of having to defend what are regarded as frivolous lawsuits.

I think we all approach this subject with a lot of humility because we know how important it is to American invention, job creation, and economic growth, but any of us who have been in litigation for a while also know that frivolous is…

I accept and I applaud that comment, and I agree completely with it that they ought to be viewed as consumers in those other contexts as well.

As you may have gathered, I think the majority of members of this panel who are here today agree that arbitration sometimes violates basic fairness and sometimes even constitutional rights.

I think is disingenuous.

But I am thinking about what is achievable strictly in raw political terms, because I have not been here as long as Senator Franken or Senator Whitehouse, but I do know that often we are frustrated in trying to achieve these kinds of…

How do we attract the kinds of people--you make reference to them--who have skills, who can develop these skills?

Do you think there is sufficient attention given to climate disruption, global warming, that area, in terms of the forecasting of weather?

Could you get us the number for the length of time that is required for resolution of appeals?

I am troubled to find is that, unless I am wrong, the average length of appeals has actually increased by about 7 percent since March.