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House Bill Prohibits National ID Card, Citizen Spy
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
House Bill Prohibits National ID Card, Citizen Spy Program
Friday, July 19, 2002
BY CURT ANDERSON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's plan for uniform national driver license standards would be killed and a year-end deadline for anti-terrorism screening of airport baggage would be postponed indefinitely under legislation unveiled Thursday by House Republican leaders.
The fine print of the 216-page bill creating a new Homeland Security Department, sponsored by House Majority Leader Dick Armey, would also scrap a Bush administration program that critics say encourages Americans to spy on each other and would give some technology companies involved in national security immunity from lawsuits.
The House Select Committee on Homeland Security is likely to alter the measure when it is considered to day, as is the full House when the bill reaches the floor next week. Overall, the bill would give Bush much of the huge new Cabinet agency he requested to safeguard Americans from terrorism at home.
The Senate has finished hearings on a new department but is not expected to take up the issue for a few weeks. A spokeswoman for the chief Senate author, Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, said his version would also include most of Bush's major priorities.
Armey, R-Texas, included some surprising items in the House measure, some of which run directly counter to proposals Bush has made and were never recommended by any House committees.
The proposal to delay indefinitely the Dec. 31 deadline for all checked airline bags to be screened for explosives drew immediate fire from Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, senior Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
"Now, you have a proposal that already undermines security," Oberstar said. "How can you establish a Homeland Security Department and undermine security by giving this open-ended extension?"
In a letter to colleagues, Oberstar said the new Transportation Security Administration -- which would become part of Homeland Security under Armey's bill -- has repeatedly assured Congress it can meet the deadline. Airports have been pressing for a temporary delay, even though they can individually get one if they cannot meet the deadline.
On the privacy issues, Bush proposed this week in his homeland security strategy that states be encouraged to develop uniform rules for issuing driver licenses as an anti-terrorism measure. To many conservatives and civil libertarians, that sounded too much like a national identification card that the government could use to track Americans.
Armey flatly rejected that notion, saying, "Authority to design and issue these cards shall remain with the states."
The bill also includes language that would prohibit programs such as the Justice Department's Operation TIPS. Supporters say the initiative is aimed at encouraging people with certain jobs -- those that take them into neighborhoods, along coasts and on public transit -- to watch for suspicious activity.
But Rachel King, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, said it could "turn local cable or gas or electrical technicians into government-sanctioned peeping toms." Republicans also criticized the idea as smacking of a government Big Brother.
http://www.sltrib.com/07192002/nation_w/754822.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Friday, July 19, 2002
BY CURT ANDERSON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's plan for uniform national driver license standards would be killed and a year-end deadline for anti-terrorism screening of airport baggage would be postponed indefinitely under legislation unveiled Thursday by House Republican leaders.
The fine print of the 216-page bill creating a new Homeland Security Department, sponsored by House Majority Leader Dick Armey, would also scrap a Bush administration program that critics say encourages Americans to spy on each other and would give some technology companies involved in national security immunity from lawsuits.
The House Select Committee on Homeland Security is likely to alter the measure when it is considered to day, as is the full House when the bill reaches the floor next week. Overall, the bill would give Bush much of the huge new Cabinet agency he requested to safeguard Americans from terrorism at home.
The Senate has finished hearings on a new department but is not expected to take up the issue for a few weeks. A spokeswoman for the chief Senate author, Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, said his version would also include most of Bush's major priorities.
Armey, R-Texas, included some surprising items in the House measure, some of which run directly counter to proposals Bush has made and were never recommended by any House committees.
The proposal to delay indefinitely the Dec. 31 deadline for all checked airline bags to be screened for explosives drew immediate fire from Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, senior Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
"Now, you have a proposal that already undermines security," Oberstar said. "How can you establish a Homeland Security Department and undermine security by giving this open-ended extension?"
In a letter to colleagues, Oberstar said the new Transportation Security Administration -- which would become part of Homeland Security under Armey's bill -- has repeatedly assured Congress it can meet the deadline. Airports have been pressing for a temporary delay, even though they can individually get one if they cannot meet the deadline.
On the privacy issues, Bush proposed this week in his homeland security strategy that states be encouraged to develop uniform rules for issuing driver licenses as an anti-terrorism measure. To many conservatives and civil libertarians, that sounded too much like a national identification card that the government could use to track Americans.
Armey flatly rejected that notion, saying, "Authority to design and issue these cards shall remain with the states."
The bill also includes language that would prohibit programs such as the Justice Department's Operation TIPS. Supporters say the initiative is aimed at encouraging people with certain jobs -- those that take them into neighborhoods, along coasts and on public transit -- to watch for suspicious activity.
But Rachel King, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, said it could "turn local cable or gas or electrical technicians into government-sanctioned peeping toms." Republicans also criticized the idea as smacking of a government Big Brother.
http://www.sltrib.com/07192002/nation_w/754822.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878