The House Appropriations Committee may have eliminated funding for the Clinton Administration's proposed federal intrusion detection surveillance system (FIDNet), but the White House found another vehicle for funding through a $611 million mid-year fiscal 2000 budget amendment.
On Sept. 21, the White House's Office of Management and Budget sent up the proposed request to Congress, including $39 million for enhancing computer security and critical infrastructure protection within several agencies. The president requested $8.4 million for FIDNet to be run by the General Services Administration.
"The proposal would, through the use of additional staff and enhanced technology, improve federal agencies' ability to detect computer attacks and unauthorized instructions, share attack warnings and related information across agencies and respond to attacks," according to the written proposal.
In July, the White House revealed its plan to create FIDNet, which is aimed at centralizing computer intrusion detection. It immediately was criticized by privacy and civil liberties groups and some members of Congress who were concerned that the system would result in federal surveillance of all computer networks. In September, House appropriators denied funding designated for FIDNet in the Commerce, State and Justice appropriations bill in August.
Administration officials have said that FIDNet would monitor only federal networks, though an early draft of the plan envisioned that eventually private networks would also be overseen, said Richard Diamond, spokesman for House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas.
Jon Jennings, acting assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the Justice Department, told Armey in a Sept. 22 letter that the media had "mischaracterized" the FIDNet proposal, but Armey's concerns have not been assuaged.
"They have made some steps backward to address the concerns we raised over the program, but we aren't satisfied quite yet that they are taking privacy concerns fully… We want them to say in absolute terms that (FIDNet) will not be used in anyway to cover private networks," Diamond said.
Armey has given the administration a deadline of Oct. 15 to respond fully to his concerns, Diamond said.
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