Privacy and Cyber Legislation Pending in the 112th Congress

Computer hacking, data breach, data privacy, and information security have dominated the news lately and created a sense of urgency in Congress to “do something” to fix the problems. Over the last few days I have searched the web for a source to keep me updated on all of the cyber-legislation that is currently pending in the 112th United States Congress. I have been unable to find such a source so I have resorted to a rather crude search of the Library of Congress’ “Thomas” website — this is my first “search” of Thomas for such purposes so I can’t guaranty the accuracy of my research. Since I am going through the trouble myself, however, I thought I would share it with you as well.

The following is an over-inclusive (by a long shot) list of the current legislative initiatives that I have found that appear to be privacy or cyber related. Initially, I went through and linked each bill to its Thomas summary but then, after going through that whole process, learned the hard way that Thomas times out after 30 minutes and the links were useless. As my teenage daughter would say, that was a FAIL! So, we’ll just have to use a work around — go HERE and type in the Bill Number and it will take you to the Thomas page where you can find the text and summary of the legislation as well as track its status and find other helpful information.

H.R.76 : Cybersecurity Education Enhancement Act of 2011

H.R.102 : Photo Identification Security Act

H.R.108 : Voting Opportunity and Technology Enhancement Rights Act of 2011

H.R.174 : Homeland Security Cyber and Physical Infrastructure Protection Act of 2011

H.R.220 : Identity Theft Prevention Act of 2011

H.R.352 : To permit members of the House of Representatives to donate used computer equipment to public elementary and secondary schools designated by the members.

H.R.423 : Member Address Privacy and Protection Act

H.R.427 : To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a 5-year recovery period for computer-based gambling machines.

H.R.484 : Personal Privacy Clarification Act

H.R.592 : Sunshine in Litigation Act of 2011

H.R.611 : Building Effective Strategies to Promote Responsibility Accountability Choice Transparency Innovation Consumer Expectations and Safeguards Act / BEST PRACTICES ACT

H.R.653 : Financial Information Privacy Act of 2011

H.R.654 : Do Not Track Me Online Act

H.R.685 : Checkpoint Images Protection Act of 2011

H.R.877 : To express the sense of Congress that Federal job training programs that target older adults should work with nonprofit organizations that have a record of success in developing and implementing research-based technology curriculum designed specifically for older adults.

H.R.948 : Embedded Mental Health Providers for Reserves Act of 2011

H.R.1059 : To protect the safety of judges by extending the authority of the Judicial Conference to redact sensitive information contained in their financial disclosure reports, and for other purposes.

H.R.1136 : Executive Cyberspace Coordination Act of 2011

H.R.1187 : Fix HIT Act of 2011

H.R.1261 : Chief Technology Officer Act

H.R.1279 : Aircraft Passenger Whole-Body Imaging Limitations Act of 2011

H.R.1389 : Global Online Freedom Act of 2011

H.R.1509 : Medicare Identity Theft Prevention Act of 2011

H.R.1528 : Consumer Privacy Protection Act of 2011

H.R.1538 : Social Security Identity Defense Act of 2011

H.R.1707 : Data Accountability and Trust Act

H.R.1841 : Data Accountability and Trust Act (DATA) of 2011

H.R.1895 : Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011

H.R.2004 : Technology Security and Antiboycott Act

H.R.2089 : Technology Helps Revamp, Evaluate, and Expedite Designs Act of 2011

H.R.2096 : Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2011

H.R.2102: FCC Commissioners’ Technical Resource Enhancement Act

H.R.2125 : Electronic Paycard Protection Act of 2011

H.R.2168 : Geolocational Privacy and Surveillance Act

(Discussion Draft) ‘‘Secure and Fortify Electronic Data Act’’ or the ‘‘SAFE Data Act’’ (Introduced 6/10/11)

H.RES.98 : Expressing the Sense of the House of Representatives that the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration should give the greatest weight in making critical policy decisions to readily available hard science data, including evidence from the natural sciences, physical sciences, and computing sciences.

H.RES.175 : Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that in order to continue aggressive growth in the Nation’s telecommunications and technology industries, the United States Government should “Get Out of the Way and Stay Out of the Way”.

S.1 : American Competitiveness Act

S.8 : Tough and Smart National Security Act

S.21 : Cyber Security and American Cyber Competitiveness Act of 2011

S.193 : USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2011

S.224 : Stalkers Act of 2011

S.257 : Small Business Broadband and Emerging Information Technology Enhancement Act of 2011

S.290 : USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2011

S.372 : Cybersecurity and Internet Safety Standards Act

S.413 : Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act of 2011

S.539 : Behavioral Health Information Technology Act of 2011

S.611 : FCC TECH Act

S.643 : Fix HIT Act of 2011

S.799 : Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011

S.801 : Information Technology Investment Management Act of 2011

S.813 : Cyber Security Public Awareness Act of 2011

S.848 : Consumer Information Enhancement Act of 2011

S.890 : Fighting Fraud to Protect Taxpayers Act of 2011

S.913 : Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2011

S.1011 : Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendments Act of 2011

S.1050 : Fourth Amendment Restoration Act

S.1070 : Fourth Amendment Restoration Act

S.1073 : A bill to require the Attorney General to establish minimization and destruction procedures governing the acquisition, retention, and dissemination by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of certain records.

S.1075 : A bill to provide judicial review of National Security Letters.

S.1125 : USA PATRIOT Act Improvements Act of 2011

S.1151 : Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2011

S.1152 : Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2011

S.1159 : Cyberspace Warriors Act of 2011

S.1199 : Protecting the Privacy of Social Security Numbers Act

S.1207: Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2011

S.1212 : Geolocational Privacy and Surveillance Act

S.1223 : Location Privacy Protection Act of 2011

S.RES.35 : A resolution expressing support for the designation of January 28, 2011 as National Data Privacy Day.

S.AMDT.141 to S.23 To clarify that section 14 shall not apply to an invention that is a computer program product or system used solely for preparing a tax or information return or other tax filing.

If you find that something is missing and should have been included, please let me know and I’ll make the addition. Better yet, if you know of a website that has this information and keeps it updated, let me know — I’ve never been much on reinventing the wheel!