Senator seeks commission on government privacy practices

Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., introduced a bipartisan bill Wednesday that would create a commission to study federal, state and local government privacy practices.

The bill--cosponsored by Democratic Sens. Herb Kohl, Wis., and Carl Levin, Mich., and GOP Sens. Susan Collins, Maine, Peter Fitzgerald, Ill., Strom Thurmond, S.C., and George Voinovich, Ohio--comes at the same time that a House Government Reform subcommittee approved a bill to establish a privacy commission.

Thompson's measure, S. 851, deals exclusively with government privacy issues, including the extent to which federal, state and local governments collect, use and distribute personal information, their compliance with the 1974 Privacy Act, and the extent to which individuals can obtain redress for government privacy violations. The broader House bill, H.R. 583, also would examine privacy practices in the private sector.

The size of the panel under the House bill would be 17 members, compared with 11 under the Thompson proposal, and H.R. 583 would require that at least two field hearings be held in each of five regions, while Thompson's bill would require a minimum of three field hearings total.

Under S. 851, the president, the House Speaker, the House minority leader, the Senate majority leader, and the Senate minority leader each would appoint two members of the commission. All five leaders would appoint the chairman jointly. The House bill, on the other hand, would give the majority party more appointments, and the president and majority congressional leaders would appoint the chairman.

Both measures would give a privacy commission 18 months to complete its work.

The House Government Reform Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee approved H.R. 583 by voice vote late Tuesday. Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., introduced that measure, but President Bush has announced his intention to appoint Hutchinson as the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Hutchinson spokesman Christian Brill said the congressman would continue to seek passage of his bill or seek to have it included in substantive online privacy legislation that is likely to be introduced by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. (Billy) Tauzin, R-La., and Energy and Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla.

"He will be here for a good time [until confirmation by the Senate], probably until September or October, and he will continue to push the privacy bill," Brill said.

Sources close to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee said Thompson believes that while there is bipartisan consensus for addressing government-related privacy issues, such agreement does not yet exist on other privacy issues.