Bill to Privatize Tech of Creepy TSA Airport Screenings; Bill Gives Pres Unchecked Access to Your Biometrics and May Let Him Call You “Associate” of “Terrorist Organization”
Congress is back in session. Hopefully the Representatives on the Hill are ready — because there is a countdown clock hanging over them.
Congress has eleven days to avoid a government shutdown.
The short-term funding legislation which we covered before the break, expires on January 19th. That’s next Friday. Most likely, Congress will pass another “continuing resolution.” What’s that, you may ask?
These “continuing resolutions” are mini-budgets that fund the government for short periods of time. With each one passing, Congressmembers are supposed to agree a little more on what the 2018 budget will actually hold. So why is Congress tip-toeing its way to a budget?
Well, the President has to sign off on the budget in the end, and President Trump has a major budgetary demand: he wants $18 billion for a Southern border wall.
Democrats have been outspoken against this request, which may be why the White House has tied funding of “the wall” funding to DACA — or the Defered Action for Childhood Arrivals Program.
This program, DACA, prevented the deportation of 800,000 undocumented immigrants who had entered the United States before the age of 17, if they arrived prior to June of 2012. The program expires in March, but President Trump may not accept any funding plan that includes extending DACA but not building “the wall”. In other words, Democrats, complain, he is holding hundreds of thousands of children hostage in exchange for funds to build “the wall.”
Congress most likely manage to pass a short-term continuing resolution on Friday,
As budget analyst Stan Collender wrote in Forbes, “The idea that Congressional Republicans and Democrats and the Trump administration would settle all of their differences and adopt the final fiscal 2018 appropriations by the current deadline of January 19 was always…in technical federal budget terminology…’total B.S.,’” He continued, “Government shutdowns typically happen because of emotional issues rather than substantive differences and, in what should be considered an understatement, Trump is dealing with multiple issues right now that qualify as emotional.”
There are other issues and bills hitting the floors of the House and Senate. Senate Committees will be hearing experts explain the Opioid Crisis and odd as it may sound, recent alleged “soundwave” attacks on US diplomats in Cuba.
As for bills to be voted on, the theme this week is counter-terrorism. Using Bill Cam, we picked out and summarized a couple of interesting bills, as well as giving you the House schedule for the week.
The SAFE TECH ACT
Introduced by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL)
Bill to Privatize Tech of Creepy TSA Airport Screenings; Bill Gives Pres Unchecked Access to Your Biometrics and May Let Him Call You “Associate” of “Terrorist Organization”
January 10, 2018
Congress is back in session. Hopefully the Representatives on the Hill are ready — because there is a countdown clock hanging over them.
Congress has eleven days to avoid a government shutdown.
The short-term funding legislation which we covered before the break, expires on January 19th. That’s next Friday. Most likely, Congress will pass another “continuing resolution.” What’s that, you may ask?
These “continuing resolutions” are mini-budgets that fund the government for short periods of time. With each one passing, Congressmembers are supposed to agree a little more on what the 2018 budget will actually hold. So why is Congress tip-toeing its way to a budget?
Well, the President has to sign off on the budget in the end, and President Trump has a major budgetary demand: he wants $18 billion for a Southern border wall.
Democrats have been outspoken against this request, which may be why the White House has tied funding of “the wall” funding to DACA — or the Defered Action for Childhood Arrivals Program.
This program, DACA, prevented the deportation of 800,000 undocumented immigrants who had entered the United States before the age of 17, if they arrived prior to June of 2012. The program expires in March, but President Trump may not accept any funding plan that includes extending DACA but not building “the wall”. In other words, Democrats, complain, he is holding hundreds of thousands of children hostage in exchange for funds to build “the wall.”
Congress most likely manage to pass a short-term continuing resolution on Friday,
As budget analyst Stan Collender wrote in Forbes, “The idea that Congressional Republicans and Democrats and the Trump administration would settle all of their differences and adopt the final fiscal 2018 appropriations by the current deadline of January 19 was always…in technical federal budget terminology…’total B.S.,’” He continued, “Government shutdowns typically happen because of emotional issues rather than substantive differences and, in what should be considered an understatement, Trump is dealing with multiple issues right now that qualify as emotional.”
There are other issues and bills hitting the floors of the House and Senate. Senate Committees will be hearing experts explain the Opioid Crisis and odd as it may sound, recent alleged “soundwave” attacks on US diplomats in Cuba.
As for bills to be voted on, the theme this week is counter-terrorism. Using Bill Cam, we picked out and summarized a couple of interesting bills, as well as giving you the House schedule for the week.
The SAFE TECH ACT
Introduced by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL)
This bill requires the TSA to work with the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) to “develop a program to enable a vendor of transportation security screening technology to obtain testing… by an appropriate third party.”
The TSA currently inspects, maintains, and tests security facilities, equipment, and systems. This bill would allow tests for (1) health and safety factors; (2) operator interface; (3) human factors; (4) environmental factors;(5) throughput;(6) reliability, maintainability, and availability factors; and (7) interoperability.
Congressman Bilirakis (R-FL), the bill’s sponsor, got the idea for this law after a fact-finding mission, “I have always contended that if we are not safe, then nothing else matters. During my recent fact finding mission, I was startled by lack of consistency in international standards and gaps in technology that support precautionary measures to ensure passenger safety,” he said in a press release.
He and other supporters of this bill posit that the legislation will improve the safety of air travel for all passengers by allowing third party testing of “innovative technology screening capabilities” to enhance airport security, updating security standards, and coordinating collaboration at international airports. That’s the bill’s language. Critics worry that it is disastrous for US safety to have such a sensitive, impactful task performed by a private sector third party, who would also then have access to a great deal of private data about individual citizens and travellers.
The bill doesn’t give specifics about vendors or the type of “innovative technology” we can expect to the private sector TSA to use.
Critics ask: why isn’t the TSA adept enough to test screening technology by itself? And: will this bill mean increased obstacles added to an already hectic screening process, and will those pay of in greater security?
H.R. 4569 – The Counterterrorism Information Sharing Improvement Act of 2017
Sponsored by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI)
This bill comes off as pretty straightforward. Here’s the first sentence:
“The President, acting though the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall ensure that, for counterterrorism purposes, the Department of the Homeland Security has access to biographic and biometric data collected by the United States Government on individuals associated with a terrorist organization.”
The bill instructs the President to lift any paperwork issues, classification challenges and technicalities to get the DHS the info on “individuals associated with terrorist organizations”.
*Cringing slightly*
Supporters of this legislation explain that information-sharing is key to stopping terrorists before they strike. Of course, no one wants a bureaucratic backlog to be the only thing the way between an attack succeeding and being prevented.
But, as critics point out, the bill’s language leaves dangerously undefined and broad, what an “association” to “terrorist organizations” actually is and what these organizations actually are. Critics note that animal rights and peace organizations have been classified as “terrorist organizations”, and worry that this bill removes any obstacle to DHSA having access to any activist’s DNA and biometric information.
Here are the rest of the bills, which you can read and share by using billcam:
1) H.R. 4577 – Domestic Explosives Detection Canine Capacity Building Act of 2017, as amended (Sponsored by Rep. Mike Rogers / Homeland Security Committee)
2) H.R. 1486 – Securing American Non-Profit Organizations Against Terrorism Act of 2017, as amended (Sponsored by Rep. Bennie Thompson / Homeland Security Committee)
3) H.R. 4578 – Counter Terrorist Network Act (Sponsored by Rep. Filemon Vela / Homeland Security Committee)
4) H.R. 4567 – DHS Overseas Personnel Enhancement Act of 2017, as amended (Sponsored by Rep. John Katko / Homeland Security Committee)
6) H.R. 4559 – Global Aviation System Security Reform Act of 2017, as amended (Sponsored by Rep. Ron Estes / Homeland Security Committee)
7) H.R. 3202 – Cyber Vulnerability Disclosure Reporting Act (Sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee / Homeland Security Committee)
9) H.R. 4555 – DHS Interagency Counterterrorism Task Force Act of 2017, as amended (Sponsored by Rep. John Rutherford / Homeland Security Committee)
10) H.R. 4564 – Post-Caliphate Threat Assessment Act of 2017 (Sponsored by Rep. Clay Higgins / Homeland Security Committee)
11) H.R. 4581 – Screening and Vetting Passenger Exchange Act of 2017 (Sponsored by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick / Homeland Security Committee)
12) H.R. 4433 – Securing DHS Firearms Act of 2017, as amended (Sponsored by Rep. Lou Correa / Homeland Security Committee)
13) H.Res. 676 – Supporting the rights of the people of Iran to free expression, condemning the Iranian regime for its crackdown on legitimate protests, and for other purposes (Sponsored by Rep. Ed Royce / Foreign Affairs Committee)
14) H.R. 535 – Taiwan Travel Act (Sponsored by Rep. Steve Chabot / Foreign Affairs Committee)
15) H.R. 3320 – To direct the Secretary of State to develop a strategy to regain observer status for Taiwan in the World Health Organization, and for other purposes (Sponsored by Rep. Ted Yoho / Foreign Affairs Committee)
S. 140 – To amend the White Mountain Apache Tribe Water Rights Quantification Act of 2010 to clarify the use of amounts in the WMAT Settlement Fund, Rules Committee Print (Subject to a Rule) (Sponsored by Sen. Jeff Flake / Natural Resources Committee / Education and the Workforce Committee)
S. 139 – FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017, Rules Committee Print (Subject to a Rule) (Sponsored by Rep. Devin Nunes / Intelligence Committee / Judiciary Committee)
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