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Washington, DC – U.S.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), along with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.),
today announced new legislation aimed at stopping implementation of
the Defense Department's "Total Information Awareness" (TIA)
Program until Congress can review privacy and civil liberties issues
related to the plan, overseen by Admiral John Poindexter, to collect
information on citizens' financial transactions, travel, medical records
and other activities. Wyden has introduced S. Amdt. 3, an amendment
to the omnibus spending bill currently before the Senate, to prohibit
the use of Defense Department funds to develop technology to spy on
American citizens in the U.S.; he is also an original co-author of
legislation with Feingold to stop all so-called "data-mining"
activities in the Department of Defense and the new Department of
Homeland Security until Congress can exercise proper oversight.
"Our country needs to fight terrorists,
but America should not unleash virtual bloodhounds to sniff into
the financial, educational, travel and medical records of millions
of our people," said Wyden. "The plans for the Total Information
Awareness Program are unprecedented, and with technological innovation
making it possible to learn personal information with relative ease,
Congress should step in and put the brakes on this program before
it grows unchecked and unaccountable."
Wyden's amendment to the spending bill, cosponsored
by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), is expected to come up for a vote on
the Senate floor in the immediate future. In addition to prohibiting
the use of funds for technology development for TIA surveillance
of American citizens in America, it also prohibits the use of those
funds to develop any such technology that might be transferred to
another government agency. The Wyden amendment requires a report
from the Department of Defense outlining plans, costs and scope
for the TIA program and its implications on issues of privacy and
civil liberties. It does include a Presidential waiver provision
that would allow the President of the United States to submit a
waiver to Congress to release funds for TIA technology research
and development in the event of a national security crisis.
The Feingold-Wyden bill introduced today, also
sponsored by Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), would prohibit both the
Defense Department and the new Department of Homeland Security from
engaging in "data-mining," or the collection of broad
information about an individual without any particular suspicion
of wrongdoing. The Senators will seek to move the bill through the
appropriate committee or committees and to the floor in the coming
weeks.
A diverse coalition including
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Americans for Tax
Reform attended today's press conference and spoke in support of
both Wyden's amendment and the Feingold-Wyden bill.
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