House leader attacks agency information sharing

The privacy debate should focus more on government intrusion into citizens' privacy through the sharing of personal information among federal agencies, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said Wednesday.

"I am a happily married half-nutty professor. But I don't know why this has to be shared with the IRS," Armey, a one-time economics professor, wisecracked during a speech to the Federalist Society, alluding to information sharing between the Social Security Administration and the IRS.

Taking the lead on privacy is an "opportunity to assert opposition to big-government intrusiveness in our lives," Armey said. He said that liberal Democrats have tried to claim they are the ones who are working for the consumer in this area, while adding, "They have seized upon the privacy issues, and, as usual, they got out there quick and fast, and as usual, conservatives played defense."

Armey said the federal government is responsible for a "constitutional assault" on privacy through uses of various electronic surveillance techniques. He cited infrared search technology and the FBI's use of an e-mail surveillance tool, formerly known as Carnivore.

"I think every conservative in America ought to be appalled by that," Armey said. "If you have ever touched a keyboard in your life ... you ought to be concerned with that."