Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

By Mr. WYDEN:
S. 1484. A bill to require a report on Federal Government use of commercial and other databases for national security,
intelligence, and law enforcement purposes, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I believe the United States can fight terrorism ferociously without gutting civil liberties. The point of the legislation I am introducing today is to address concerns that have arisen about the second part of this equation: an area of privacy that has gotten short shrift. That is the personal financial, medical and other data on millions of Americans that today is less than a mouseclick away from the computers of thousands of Federal bureaucrats. Access to and the use of that personal information by Federal bureaucrats is not protected by any comprehensive law.

The power of technology that allows the Federal Government to pry into the personal lives of millions of Americans is only beginning to be understood. It is a breath-taking power, and it has come partly to light through the Defense Department's Terrorism Information Awareness Program (TIA), and through the Transportation Security Administration's Computer Assisted Passenger Profiling System II or CAPPSII Program. These and more than two dozen other agencies wield that power with little or no restraint.

The legislation I am introducing with the support of a bipartisan group of privacy watchdog organizations, the Citizens' Protection in Federal Databases Act, will put the breaks on unchecked Federal data sweeps. It requires the Federal agencies with law enforcement or intelligence authority to share with Congress exactly what they are doing with private or public databases, why they are doing it, and most importantly, what, if any, privacy protections the agencies are affording the individuals' whose sensitive information is caught up in those databases.

The Citizens' Protection in Federal Databases Act also prohibits searches based on hypothetical scenarios.

Apparently, some government agencies are using valuable Federal resources chasing hypothetical situations dreamed up without regard to actual intelligence or law enforcement information.

The TIA Report to Congress in May of this year explained at length the program's intent to construct possible terrorist "scenarios" based on "historical examples, estimated capabilities, and imagination." These scenarios would then be fed into database searches in an effort to substantiate the hypotheticals.

This Act bans such searches. This prohibition will promote the efficient use of Federal law enforcement time and money and help protect Americans from being subject to "virtual goose chases."

Since 9/11, there has been an abundance of stories regarding Americans being stopped, searched, or detained due to some mistaken information. For example, after 9/11, the FBI decided to share with companies across the country a list with names of people wanted for possible association with terrorism. This list, as part of "Project Lookout," was sent to thousands of corporations, some of whom now use the list in lieu of background checks.

Here's the problem—this list is not necessarily accurate. First of all, the list quickly became obsolete as the FBI checked people off. That means even if people were cleared by the FBI of suspicion, their names were still on this list. Secondly, the list has been shared so many times, and passed from person to person, group to group—many names have become misspelled and now folks, due to one or two typos, are being stopped as suspected terrorists.

That story is just one example of what can happen when information is mishandled. It is Congress's job to make sure mistakes like these do not happen.

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The Citizens' Protection in Federal Databases Act is not the end of this issue. After shedding some light on what exactly is happening with personal information—the Congress must then address how to protect Americans from the misuse of this information.

I am happy to be working with a strong group of privacy advocates. The group includes the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, People for the American Way, the Free Congress Foundation, and the American Civil Liberties Union, and they have been instrumental in getting strong safeguards enacted against abuses in the TIA and other programs. I look forward to working with these groups, and my Senate colleagues, to see that this bill is enacted into law.

When tens of thousands of bureaucrats have at their fingertips all-too-easy access to such personal information from private and public databases as the use of passports, driver's licenses, credit cards, ATMs, airline tickets, and rental cars, the American people want to know what is happening to their information. They want to know who wants access to it and why. Their personal information deserves strong privacy protection, and that is what this legislation is all about.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the RECORD.