Department of Homeland Security Component Privacy Officer Act of 2008

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5170) to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to provide for a privacy official within each component of the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this measure and yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5170, the Department of Homeland Security Component Privacy Officer Act of 2008.

The Department's Chief Privacy Officer was the first ever statutorily created Federal Privacy Officer. The creation of this Office served as the ``gold standard'' for other Federal agencies to follow.

Along those same lines, this bill advances the committee's authorization process by improving DHS and making it the first Federal agency to have statutorily created privacy officers in its component agencies. Hopefully, this will put the Department at the forefront of individual privacy protection.

Under the current structure, the Chief Privacy Officer has to rely on component agencies--such as TSA, Customs and Border Protection and FEMA--for information concerning programs and policy that impact privacy rights. Sometimes this information is shared, sometimes it's not. When it's not, the risk includes spending valuable taxpayer funds on programs that may become stalled or cancelled due to privacy concerns or missteps.

The component agencies are the pulse of the Department of Homeland Security. Most homeland security efforts stem from component agency actions. Privacy officers need to be where the action is happening, not waiting for a phone call after decisions have already been made.

Establishing privacy officers in the component agencies that make up the Department of Homeland Security is the first step in ensuring that privacy protections are in place at the beginning of the process.

Under the leadership of Management, Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee chairman, Mr. Carney, this legislation is informed by Government Accountability Office findings, internal discussions with the Department's Office of Privacy, and publications released by the DHS Chief Privacy Officer.

H.R. 5170 requires the component privacy officers to, among other things,

serve as the main point of contact between their component head and the DHS Chief Privacy Officer; draft and review Privacy Impact Assessments and Federal Register notices published by their component; monitor the component's compliance with all applicable Federal privacy laws and regulations; and conduct supervision of programs, regulations, policies, procedures or guidelines to ensure the component's protection of privacy.

As a result, Mr. Speaker, of the committee's oversight and its commitment to the authorization process, this bill would ensure that privacy considerations are integrated into the decision-making process at all of the DHS components.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation that is not only critical to privacy rights, but the security of our country as well.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and if the gentleman from Florida has no speakers, then I am prepared to close after the gentleman closes.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, public trust in the Department's ability to protect personal privacy rights is abysmally low.

Recently, the Department's Inspector General determined that the Science and Technology Directorate's ADVISE program should be cancelled due to privacy concerns. This determination was made after the Department had spent $42 billion on the program. We also learned that the chief privacy officer was not brought into the process until almost 2 years after the system had been deployed.

This bill would put a privacy officer in the Science and Technology Directorate. Moreover, the Automated Targeting System, which is a Customs and Border Protection program, has been heavily criticized by privacy advocates. Again, this was a program that was operated for some time in the dark without proper safeguards and departmental oversight. Under this bill CBP would get a privacy officer too.

Quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, there has been a litany of DHS programs that have been cancelled, delayed, or discontinued due to privacy concerns. Almost all of these were the products of Department Component Agencies that do not have a privacy officer within their ranks.

H.R. 5170 will ensure that privacy protections and appropriate safeguards are part and parcel of how each component develops its policies and programs.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today in support of H.R. 5170, the Department of Homeland Security Component Privacy Officer Act, sponsored by my committee colleague, Chris Carney.

H.R. 5170 would direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate a full-time privacy official within components of the Department. These components include the Transportation Security Administration, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FEMA, the Coast Guard, the Science and Technology Directorate, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, and NPPD.

The bill provides that each component privacy official will report directly to the Department's Chief Privacy Officer. Each component privacy officer shall have primary responsibility for implementing the Department's privacy policy within its component.

The bill provides for a dual direct report relationship to both the privacy official's component head and the Department's Chief Privacy Officer in carrying out his or her duties.

I think we all can agree that protecting the privacy of our Nation's citizens is of great importance, and that privacy considerations should be integrated into the decision-making process at all DHS components.

I am pleased that the Department has already recognized the importance of privacy protection. In November, 2007, Secretary Chertoff signed a DHS memorandum entitled Designation of Component Level Privacy Officers. This memorandum calls for the designation of full-time component privacy officers at CBP, ICE, FEMA, the Bureau of Citizen and Immigration Services, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, and the Science and Technology Directorate. Both TSA, US-VISIT, and the Bureau of Citizen and Immigration Services had their own privacy officials for some time.

H.R. 5170 takes the additional step of statutorily mandating component privacy officials. The approach this bill takes certainly has much merit, though I hope that we can address some of the Department's concerns about the impacts the bill's mandates may have on the ability of the next Secretary to manage the administration of the Department as the legislative process moves on.

Mr. Speaker, having said that, I intend to support H.R. 5170 and encourage all our colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, before I yield back the balance of my time, I just want to emphasize how important I believe it is for the House to consider both an authorization and appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security this year. Every Republican member of the Committee on Homeland Security has signed a letter to the Speaker, Speaker Pelosi, urging her to bring the fiscal year 2009 DHS Appropriations bill, which the Appropriations Committee has already approved, to the floor immediately. And I will add that the chairman has done an outstanding job. We would respectfully renew that request today.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of these Homeland Security bipartisan measures. I would like to commend Chairman Thompson and Ranking Member King for their efforts to bring these bills to the floor today. I would also like to congratulate the authors of these bills Congresswoman Harman and Congressmen Carney, Langevin, King, Bilirakis, Reichert, and Perlmutter.

Individually, the bills presented today improve operations within the Department of Homeland Security, including issues related to privacy, information sharing and enhanced security. Collectively, they improve on the provisions of H.R. 1, the Implementing 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act.

Protecting the privacy of our citizens is an important but very difficult issue to balance in our Nation's war against terrorism. Under H.R. 1570, the presence of a full-time Component Privacy Officer would ensure that privacy considerations remain at the forefront and are integrated into the decisionmaking process at all of the DHS Components.

Through our oversight work, it is clear that DHS's information systems have been penetrated and remain vulnerable to cyber attacks. H.R. 5983, the Homeland Security Network Defense and Accountability Act of 2008, represents a critical step toward improving the cybersecurity network at DHS by ensuring a robust defense of its information systems, and holding individuals at all levels accountable for mitigating vulnerabilities.

While protecting DHS information systems is critical to our Nation's security, we also need to be mindful of the importance and need for information sharing. H.R. 6193, H.R. 4806 and H.R. 3815 address the need for information sharing in a secure manner. H.R. 6193--Improving Public Access to Documents Act of 2008--dovetails with H.R. 4086's effort to remove obstacles to more and better information sharing in the unclassified category.

Our offshore territories are the first point of entry to the U.S. for many foreigners and our shores are extremely vulnerable to illegal and possibly terrorist activities. I am pleased that H.R. 5531 will put in motion a plan to deploy next-generation radiological detection technology at our ports of entry to more effectively and more efficiently scan persons and cargo as they enter the United States. I fully support the ``Biometric Identification At Sea Pilot Project'' which has allowed the Coast Guard to collect biometrics from individuals interdicted in the Caribbean to run them against terrorist and criminal databases. H.R. 5531 and H.R. 2490 address the vulnerabilities of our Caribbean shores.

Madam Speaker, the implementation of these bills would not be possible without our State, local and tribal entities. Fusion Centers provide much needed support to these entities in the implementation of Homeland Security programs. H.R. 6098 requires DHS to allow State and local governments to use Homeland Security grant funding to hire and keep analysts in fusion centers--for however long State and local officials see fit.

I urge my colleagues to support these bills and their passage.