Date: 2004-12-06
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Mr. Speaker. I rise today to oppose a series of legislative provisions that were included in the Transportation and Treasury section of the Omnibus Appropriations Act without consulting or even notifying the committee of jurisdiction. the Committee on Government Reform. We strenuously oppose section 522 requiring that each Federal agency have a privacy officer to carry out duties relating to the privacy and protection of personally identifiable information. These Federal information security functions are an intrinsic part of existing Federal information policy. They are the responsibility of the agency chief information officer in the agencies. Therefore. privacy officers are unnecessary. They are duplicative. and it is confusing. Further. section 522 attempts to address information security concerns that are already addressed in the Federal Information Security Management Act. the ClingerCohen Act. the Electronic Government Act. and the Paperwork Reduction Act. These laws are currently implemented by Federal agencies. Section 522 merely creates a layer of bureaucracy that contradicts existing Federal information policy currently executed by the CIOs. The Committee on Government Reform and Federal agencies have worked hard to ensure the Federal Government has coherent information security policies and guidelines in place. Section 522 reverses the progress the Federal Government has made to modernize itself in order to function more efficiently and costeffectively in a digital age. In addition. this section is a fine example of legislating on appropriation bills. But worse. there was no attempt to even discuss this provision with our committee. the committee with jurisdiction over Federal information policy. For years we have performed an aggressive legislative and oversight agenda. We have introduced a bill now to repeal this section. but the disregard for the committee of jurisdiction in this section of the omnibus did not stop there. In July. the gentleman from Indiana and the gentleman from Connecticut on behalf of the Committee on Government Reform raised and the Chair sustained 12 points of order against legislative provisions in the Transportation and Treasury Appropriations Act. Nine of these were rewritten in the omnibus. in violation of House rules. without consulting our committee. and despite our requests that these provisions not be reinserted including: 1. An amendment that runs contrary to the reauthorization of the Drug Control Policy Act passed by the House last year. and 2. Several legislative provisions that will add unneeded red tape and expense to the Federal procurement process. What does it say about our institutional integrity. our rules. ours state of affairs. when points of order are sustained and subsequently ignored. My concerns have been overshadowed by a certain tax provision that also appeared in the Omnibus. But they are symptoms of the same disease. It is the willingness of appropriators and their staff to legislate on appropriations bills without consulting the committees of jurisdiction that caused the mess over the illconsidered tax provision and this trend is the basis of my concern as well. The authorizing committees are Congresss experts on the law. and the appropriations process should not be used as an endrun around their consideration. I recognize that politics and process will sometimes require that legislation be included in appropriations. and. I have always been willing to work with appropriators to include suitable legislation in their bills. Looking forward to next Congress. it is my hope that this episode will inspire a greater willingness on the part of the appropriators and their staffs to consult and cooperate with the authorizers before legislating on appropriations acts. Finally. I ask for the appropriators support in repealing the badly considered Chief Privacy Officer provision that was surreptitiously included in the Omnibus at the 11 th hour.