Senate Democrats are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to draft new rules to protect the privacy of consumer data in a new letter to the agency written on Monday.

The letter, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and signed by eight other Democratic senators, was sent to FTC President Lina Khan on Monday, calling on the agency to “begin a rule-making process “on privacy. Specifically, senators are calling on the FTC to draft new rules regarding privacy, civil rights and the collection of consumer data.

“Consumer privacy has become a consumer crisis,” the lawmakers wrote. “Tech companies have routinely broken their promises to consumers and neglected their legal obligations, only to receive a lash after a long delay, providing little relief to consumers and with minimal deterrence. “

The FTC declined to comment.

The letter comes just days after President Joe Biden appointed longtime privacy and facial recognition critic Alvaro Bedoya to become the FTC’s third Democratic commissioner. At Georgetown Law, Bedoya has conducted research on the effects of technologies such as facial recognition on minority groups and has completed several surveys investigating the potential of technology in relation to racial prejudice.

Bedoya is a professor at the Center for Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law, and previously served as chief legal counsel to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law under the leadership of Senator Al Franken (D-MN ).

The Senate has yet to schedule a confirmation hearing for Bedoya, but it would likely help the FTC develop future privacy rules.

Congress has tried and failed to craft its own data privacy legislation in recent years, and an FTC regulation may be the government’s best chance to regulate the industry in light of tense partisan divisions. In July, the FTC voted to update the agency’s rulemaking procedures to make it easier to issue full privacy rules.

“Consumers deserve strong and enforceable privacy guarantees in the digital economy – opening regulations would be a powerful step in meeting this long overdue need,” lawmakers wrote in their letter on Monday.