Senate Bill Would Mandate Disclosure of Data Mining

[maddezmom]

Source: Washington Post

Senate Bill Would Mandate Disclosure of Data Mining

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 21, 2007; Page D03

The Justice Department is opposing bipartisan Senate legislation that would require federal agencies to disclose to Congress data-mining programs they use to find patterns of criminal or terrorist activity, saying that it duplicates a reporting requirement mandated in the 2006 renewal of the USA Patriot Act.

The department, however, missed the March 9 deadline to report on its data-mining programs as required by the law. Senate Democrats, who have pressed for disclosure to ensure that privacy and civil liberties were not violated, are not pleased.

"This is more stonewalling by the administration to avoid congressional oversight," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who co-sponsored the data-mining provision with Sens. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and John E. Sununu (R-N.H.). "We specifically placed sunshine provisions in the Patriot Act reauthorization to ensure some reasonable checks on the department's data-mining activities that affect millions of Americans," Leahy said.

The 2006 Patriot Act mandated a one-time report on Justice data-mining initiatives. The Senate proposal would establish a yearly reporting requirement for all federal agencies.

more

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001604.html