Senate
Approves Wyden-Feinstein Measure
to Fence Total Information Awareness Project
January 23, 2003
Washington, DC - The Senate today approved an amendment by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) which limits the scope of the Total Information Awareness (TIA) project and prevents it from being used to invade Americans' privacy and civil liberties. The measure was approved by voice vote and incorporated in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill.
"In my view, this controversial program requires close and careful scrutiny," Senator Feinstein said. "Thus far, it has been developed and expanded without any meaningful Congressional oversight and input. That is why our amendment would freeze further research on TIA if the Secretary of Defense does not provide details, within 60 days, about how it will work, how much it costs, and how it will affect civil liberties and privacy. Our amendment also fences off the program by barring its deployment domestically to search personal information of Americans without specific congressional authorization."
The amendment:
- Requires a report to Congress from the Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, and Director of Central Intelligence before research and development under TIA can continue. This report would describe in detail how funds are being spent for TIA, exactly what TIA is supposed to do, the likelihood that TIA would work as described, TIA's possible impact on privacy and civil liberties, and how any adverse impact on privacy and civil liberties could be minimized.
- Prohibits deployment of any component of TIA to conduct intelligence or law enforcement activities against any U.S. person, except as part of lawful U.S. military operations and lawful intelligence activities conducted wholly overseas or wholly against non-U.S. persons.
"I believe
this legislation offers a balanced solution to the TIA problem. It fences
in the program to prevent it from being abused to invade Americans' privacy
and civil liberties, but does so without impeding our military and intelligence
efforts," Senator Feinstein said. "I want to thank Senator
Wyden for joining me in sponsoring this amendment and Senator Stevens for
his assistance in adding this to the omnibus."
The TIA project is
an attempt to develop a system to search through thousands of commercial and
government databases in the United States and abroad - many filled with sensitive
personal information on millions of Americans - in an effort uncover patterns
of possible terrorist activity.
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