ACM WASHINGTON UPDATE
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January 31, 2003, Volume 7.1
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The 108th Congress Convenes
USACM Recommends an Independent Review of the TIA Program
USACM Provides Comments on the DMCA to Library of Congress
USACM Outlines Concerns with UCITA to the ABA House of Delegates
Department of Homeland Security Begins
New IT Legislation in the 108th Congress
Key Congressional Committee Changes
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INTRODUCTION
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The First Session of the 108th United States Congress began on January 7, The Constitution limits the membership of the House of Representatives to Based on census results, the shifting populations within states and nationally The November 2002 elections established the division of power in the 108th =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
On January 23, USACM sent a letter to Congress recommending a rigorous While recognizing that research and development in data-mining, fusion In related news, the Senate, by a unanimous voice vote adopted an amend- =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
USACM recently filed comments with the Copyright Office of the Library of In submitted comments, USACM advised the Copyright Office that the anti-cir Finally, USACM concluded that literary works [including computer programs =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
On January 30, USACM sent a letter to the American Bar Association's (ABA) In particular, the USACM letter to the ABA group expressed concerns that To review an article from Computerworld describing the potential impact of the =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Friday, January 24, marked the first official day of operation for the new The new agency has several technology support offices including a technology The Office of Science and Technology for Homeland Security will provide research An Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection (IAIP) office will also serve =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), joined by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Senator George Allen (R-VA) introduced, Senator John Edwards (D-NC) introduced S. 187, the “The National Cyber Security =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
The House and the Senate have corresponding committees for most techno- In the last Congress, an active Committee on IT issues was the House Committee =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
To Return to USACM Homepage
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The 108th Congress Convenes
with the swearing-in of recently elected members of the House of Represent-
atives and the Senate.
435 and the Senate to 100 (2 Senators for each state). Each state and
territory’s representation in the House of Representatives comes from appor-
tionment, based on the federal decennial census. The 2000 Census count of
281,421,906 apportions each Congressional District to nearly 646,952 inhabi-
tants.
changed Congressional boundaries. New York and Pennsylvania each lost
two seats.Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Mississippi, and
Oklahoma each lost one seat. Texas, Arizona, Georgia and Florida gained
two new Congressional seats. Finally, California, Nevada, Colorado, and
North Carolina each received one additional seat.
Congress to be 229 Republicans, 205 Democrats, and 1 Independent in the
House, and 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats, and 1 Independent in the Senate.
USACM Recommends an Independent Review of the TIA Program
independent review of the U.S. Government's Total Information Awareness
(TIA) program. The TIA program is being developed by the Department of
Defense as part of an effort to counter terrorism. In its current form, the TIA
program would involve gathering vast amounts of personal information from
U.S.citizens to compile a database of highly sensitive information, including
financial, medical, educational, telephone, and travel records.
methods and privacy enhancing technologies are needed and welcomed,
USACM raised concerns with the serious security, privacy, economic,
and personal risks associated with the development of a vast database
surveillance system such as TIA. USACM noted that a thorough examina-
tion of the technical feasibility and practical reality of the entire program
should be conducted and offered to assist in such a review.
ment to an omnibus appropriations bill that restricts all Department of Defense
funding to the TIA program. The amendment makes future Pentagon spending
on the program conditional upon a full explanation of the data-mining plan and
assessment of its impact on civil liberties. The amendment also prevents deploy-
ment of the surveillance program until it receives congressional approval, except
for national security reasons. The omnibus appropriations bill now moves to a
House and Senate Conference.
USACM Provides Comments on the DMCA to the Library of Congress
Congress as part of a rulemaking proceeding mandated by the Digital Millen-
nium Copyright Act (DMCA). The proceeding is being conducted to determine
whether there are particular classes of works as to which users are, or are likely
to be,adversely affected in their ability to make non-infringing uses due to the
prohibition on circumvention of access controls.
cumvention provisions of the DMCA have substantial negative impacts on the
conduct of basic research in the U.S., particularly in cryptography and other
computer security areas. In addition, the provisions interfere with many legal,
non-infringing uses of digital computing and prevent scientists from circumvent-
ing access technologies in order to recognize shortcomings in security systems.
USCAM further commented that the DMCA is fundamentally flawed by crimi-
nalizing multi-use technologies rather than penalizing infringing behavior.
and databases] protected by access control mechanisms that fail to permit access
to recognize shortcomings in security systems, to defend patents and copyrights,
to discover and fix dangerous bugs in code, or to conduct forms of desired educa-
tional activities, should be exempted from the DMCA's prohibition on circumvention
of access controls.
USACM Outlines Concerns with UCITA to the ABA House of Delegates
House of Delegates concerning the Uniform Computer Information Transactions
Act (UCITA). The ABA group will be voting on the current version of the con-
troversial software licensing legislation at a key February meeting. USACM and
many professionals in the software engineering industry consider UCITA to be a
threat to the professionalism of their work, the safety of the public, the quality
UCITA enables software producers to: limit their legal accountability for defec-
tive products; ban reverse engineering by means of contractual use restrictions
in many instances; place software vulnerabilities in a purchaser's software; and,
ban users from comparing software or publicizing information about un-secure
products. USACM urged the ABA group to table consideration of UCITA until
a thoughtful, balanced revision is made that respects the concerns of all segments
of the population.
ABA's pending action, see:
Article
New Department of Homeland Security Begins
Department of Homeland Security. Tom Ridge, former Governor of Pennsyl-
vania, now serves as the first Secretary of Homeland Security. Secretary Ridge
also served as head of the White House Office on Homeland Security for nearly
a year prior to the creation of the new department.
clearinghouse, an independent Homeland Security Institute, and an Under Secretary
of Science and Technology currently headed by Designate Dr. Charles McQueary.
Dr. McQueary is the retired President of General Dynamics and holds a Masters in
mechanical engineering along with a PhD in engineering mechanics from the Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin.
and development support by organizing public and private scientific and technology
resources for the prevention of terrorist attacks. This office will also coordinate
the scientific work of the federal government laboratories and academic institutions.
the agency by merging the capability to identify and assess a broad range of intelli-
gence information concerning threats to the homeland under one roof, issue timely
warnings, and take appropriate preventive and protective action.
New IT Legislation for the 108th Congress
Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) reintroduced the Digital Media Consumers’ Rights
Act (DMCRA). This bill, also identified as HR 107, amends the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA) by allowing consumers and researchers to access hard
ware and software products that enable non-infringing uses of copy-protected
work and permits the development of circumvention technology. Of particular inter-
est to USACM, technologists would not be subject to DMCA penalties for conduct-
ing research or testing copyright protection systems, security software, or software
engineering tools under.
S. 159, the “Jumpstart Broadband Act.” The House has two versions(HR 363
and HR 340) of this bill that share the same title. These bills would allow the
Federal Communications Commission to allocate additional spectrum for unlicensed
use by wireless broadband devices as long as the change would not negatively
affect Defense Department related use of spectrum.
Leadership Act of 2003.” The bill would attempt to eliminate vulnerabilities in the
information technology of the federal government by establishing performance goals
and adhere to security standards set by the National Institute of Standards and Tech-
nology.
Key Congressional Committee Changes
logy areas except for two differences--the House’s work in support of scientific
research and Homeland Security belong to two separate committees. The new
Department of Homeland Security necessitates changes in the House and Senate
Committee structure to accommodate their work regarding the new department.
The House chose to create a a new House Select Committee on Homeland
Security for this purpose, while the Senate elected to delegate work for the new
department to their Senate Government Affairs Committee.
on the Judiciary Chaired by Congressman Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Ranking
Member John Conyers (D-MI). Two key changes in the 108th Congress include
a new Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
-- Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC),and a new Chair of the Subcommittee on the
Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property -- Rep. Lamar Smith,
(R-TX).
For earlier editions of the ACM Washington Update. Should you have
questions, comments, suggestions or recommendations regarding public
policy issues or USACM activities, please contact the ACM Public
Policy Office located in Washington, DC, by usacm_dc@acm.org
or calling 202-478-6312.