I’ve mentioned the Total Information Awareness program a couple times here (More scary gov’t agencies and Everything old is new again), usually in a context of horror and bemused amazement at a program so tailor-made for conspiracy theorists.
Thankfully enough, some of the lawmakers up on Capitol Hill are also a bit put off by the TIA program, and have introduced no less than three bills combatting it to the current legislature session.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) proposed an amendment on Wednesday to the Omnibus Appropriations Bill that would suspend the program’s \$112 million budget for 2003.
On Thursday, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) introduced the Data Mining Moratorium Act of 2003, which “suspends data-mining programs until Congress finishes a complete and total review,” according to Feingold spokesman Ari Geller.
But the first lawmaker to take a shot at the program was Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), who introduced his bill last week, though few on Capitol Hill noticed. The bill, the Equal Rights and Equal Dignity for Americans Act of 2003, was one of 12 Daschle introduced and currently has 26 co-sponsors.
Combine these bills with the general uproar from the public, special interest groups such as the ACLU, and questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, and there just might be a chance that this program might not be quite the ace-in-the-hole that Ashcroft and Poindexter would like it to be.