Lawmaker seeks tally of security programs with privacy issues
Chairman of House panel cites four examples of projects that were canceled as concerns arose, requests detailed list by Sept. 28.
House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., demanded Monday that the Homeland Security Department provide a detailed list of all programs that have been canceled or suspended due to privacy concerns, as well as how much was spent on each and whether any employees were disciplined for program failures.
"I am writing to express my concerns about an apparent litany of departmental programs that have been cancelled, discontinued, reconfigured or otherwise altered due to the department's internal failure to assess their adverse ramifications upon the privacy rights of Americans and take corrective action prior to spending millions of dollars," Thompson said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
The letter is the latest example of growing tension between Thompson and Chertoff over programs that deal with privacy and constitutional issues.
Thompson appears to be setting the stage for a showdown with Chertoff over the department's plan to open an office on Oct. 1 to coordinate the use of satellites for homeland security activities, such as border control and law enforcement support.
Thompson and two other senior Democrats on the committee this month called for a moratorium on the office. They asked Chertoff to provide the committee written legal documentation on how it will operate.
Homeland Security officials say they are confident the office will comply with all laws.
A committee aide said Monday that the department had yet to submit the requested documentation. In his letter, Thompson cited four programs the department discontinued or suspended after privacy concerns were raised by government investigators.
Most recently, the department suspended the so-called ADVISE program, which was designed to use computer algorithms to find relationships between seemingly disparate data.
The department's inspector general concluded program managers failed to address privacy concerns before implementing three ADVISE testing efforts. After spending $42 million, the inspector general said the testing efforts were shut down in March.
"What is particularly bothersome about the cancellation of ADVISE is that this is not an isolated failure," Thompson wrote. "To the contrary, the department has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on projects and programs without first thoroughly evaluating the legal basis for the program and determining whether the operation of the program will violate the privacy rights of Americans."
Other programs cited by Thompson include the so-called MATRIX program, the CAPPS II airline passenger screening program and the Secure Flight airline passenger screening program.
The Secure Flight program replaced the CAPPS II program. The department suspended Secure Flight in 2006 after government auditors gave it failing grades and said program officials did not fully disclose the use of personal information on airline passengers.
A Homeland Security spokesman called Thompson's assertions "unfounded and misleading." When it comes to ADVISE, he said the program was never used in an operational setting and a legal analysis was done prior to loading data into the system to ensure all laws were followed.
Chertoff announced last month that Secure Flight was being resurrected. "I want to be very straightforward about this: Secure Flight will not do any harm to personal privacy," he said. "It's not going to rely on collecting commercial data; it's not going to assign a risk score to passengers; it's not going to try to predict behavior.
"It's only designed to collect a minimum amount of personal identifying information so that we can do an effective job of matching the traveler to a person whose name and identity is on a watch list," he said. The department discontinued funding for the MATRIX program in 2005 because it did not have a comprehensive privacy policy, according to the department's privacy office.
Thompson said the four projects alone have cost taxpayers about $300 million.
He also asked Chertoff to list which companies were the prime contractors for these and all other suspended or discontinued programs, the amount of each contract, and whether each was competitively bid. He set a Sept. 28 deadline for a response.