Bill would require agencies to review rules' privacy impact

A House Judiciary subcommittee expressed concern Tuesday that some government regulations may intrude on personal privacy and then approved by voice vote legislation to expose or nip problems in the bud.

The bill approved by the Judiciary Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee would require all federal agencies to examine proposed regulations for effects on privacy and issue for public comment a privacy impact analysis. Similar legislation was approved two years ago in the House but failed to get through the Senate.

Approval of the legislation came just before a hearing into the role of the Homeland Security Department's privacy officer -- the first department to have a congressionally mandated privacy official.

In her prepared statement, Nuala O'Connor Kelly denied that her role is at odds with the mission of the department. "The answer is absolutely not," she said. "The protection of privacy is neither an adjunct nor the antithesis to the mission" of the department. She said internally she sensitizes departmental agencies to consider privacy protections, and she helps the department develop appropriate privacy policies.

The bill does not create new privacy officers in other departments. Instead, it orders agencies to issue an initial privacy impact analysis when proposing new rules and regulations. Each analysis would be required to describe and assess how the proposed rule would affect individuals' privacy.

Among the contents of the analysis would be notice of what personal information would be collected and how it would be collected, maintained, used and disclosed to others. The analysis would allow people affected by the information to gain access to it and correct any inaccuracies.

The analysis also would prevent any information collected for one purpose to be used for another purpose and would require safekeeping of the information.

A final privacy impact statement would be issued later with a summary of significant issues raised through the public comments to the initial analysis, along with any changes resulting from the comments.

The agencies also would be required to periodically review their rules that impact privacy and determine whether they are still needed or should be modified. Individuals affected by proposed rules could appeal to federal courts for possible relief, including remanding the rule to the agency or deferring implementation of the regulation.