From Secrecy News:
A new report from the Senate Judiciary Committee examines the use of the state secrets privilege by the executive branch and describes the intent of new legislation to strengthen judicial review of its use in civil litigation.The 53 page report summarizes the latest legal scholarship on the state secrets privilege, as well as the controversy that has surrounded it.
From OMB Watch:
A bill to reduce and standardize Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) designations moved quickly through the House in July, passing in both committee and on the House floor just a single week after it was introduced by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Tom Davis (R-VA). This bill, along with a similar piece of legislation that focuses solely on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), now goes to the Senate where it may have a tougher time given the limited amount of legislative time left in this congressional session.The Waxman-Davis bill, the Reducing Information Control Designations Act (H.R. 6576), gives new authority to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Under the bill, the Archivist of the United States must establish narrowly constructed standards for CUI designations that maximize public access to information as well as develop penalties for employees and contractors who repeatedly fail to comply. NARA is already the statutory designee for setting classification standards. The act also calls for random audits of unclassified information with control designations by the inspector general of each federal agency.
From Secrecy News:
The President would no longer be able to secretly modify or revoke a published executive order if a new bill introduced in the Senate yesterday becomes law.The bill, sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, responds to a Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel opinion that was revealed last year by Senator Whitehouse on the Senate floor. According to that unreleased opinion, “There is no constitutional requirement for a President to issue a new Executive order whenever he wishes to depart from the terms of a previous Executive order. Rather than violate an Executive order, the President has instead modified or waived it.”
What this means is that any published executive order may or may not actually be in effect. It may or may not correspond to the legal framework that governs the executive branch. The public has no way of knowing.
More information on the April 30th hearing on “secret law” can be found at: http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/08/04/20080430.htm.
From The Crypt:
Sen. Tom Coburn is used to being a lonely "no" vote on overwhelming Senate votes, but on Monday afternoon, his GOP colleagues came to his defense.Coburn (R-Okla.) prevailed in blocking a massive package of generally non-controversial bills that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid brought to the floor, angering Democrats and some Republicans while raising Coburn's status as a cult hero to fiscal conservatives. The vote was 52-40 on a procedural motion that required 60 votes.
From the Washington Post:
A longtime critic of the Smithsonian Institution introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate this week that would wipe out the national museum complex's exemption from the Freedom of Information Act and the Sunshine Act.The legislation, co-sponsored by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Finance Committee, and Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, would require the Smithsonian to hold meetings in public and make records available to the public upon request.
From The Public Record:
On Wednesday, just as the Senate passed sweeping new legislation (H.R. 5811) to modernize a 30 year old federal surveillance law, President Bush signaled that he would swiftly veto a bill approved by the House earlier in the day that would overhaul the Presidential and Federal Records Act to ensure emails and other government documents are preserved in the age of the Internet.The measure was passed by a vote of 286-137, more than a year after several Senate and House investigations discovered that the Bush administration apparently purged millions of emails and that dozens of administration officials used email accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee to conduct official White House business in what appeared to be a violation of the Presidential Records Act. . .
. . . The Bush administration, in threatening to veto the legislation, said that the bill is "an excessive and inappropriate intrusion" into the work of the executive branch and its staff.
In a statement, the White House said the Electronic Message Preservation Act would "upset the delicate separation of powers" created in the 1978 Presidential Records Act, a law drafted in response to the widespread abuse of federal records during the Nixon administration.
From NextGov.com:
The Census Bureau will receive $210 million in emergency funding to cover cost overruns for the 2010 decennial census, despite a vow by the head of the Commerce Department to transfer funds to pay for the shortfall.
From the National Journal: (Subscription required)
Ahead of a scheduled House vote today, the White House threatened to veto a bill aimed at forcing the president and federal agencies to improve preservation of e-mail records.
From Federal Computer Week:
The Census Bureau might not get an additional $210 million as a result of a recent Senate vote.The Senate voted 77-21 June 26 to remove the emergency spending designation from the funding, essentially dropping it from the fiscal 2008 Supplemental Appropriations Act.
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez had requested additional money for this fiscal year at an April 3 hearing before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. He said the money would help offset the total cost of the 2010 census, which is estimated at $2.2 billion to $3 billion more than the original estimate, bringing the total to $14.5 billion. Some of that increase has been attributed to the Census Bureau's decision to make follow-up surveys paper-based rather using handheld computers.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who demanded the vote, argued that the $210 million could not be considered emergency spending. He blamed the rising costs on Census' mismanagement.
From Federal Computer Week:
In response to the revelations about White House e-mail practices, members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have introduced the Electronic Communications Preservation Act. The bill would direct the Archivist of the United States to issue regulations that require federal agencies to preserve electronic records — especially e-mail messages — in an electronic format.Current National Archives and Records Administration regulations permit agencies to preserve electronic records by storing them in an electronic format or printing them on paper and saving the paper. Agencies almost universally choose the paper option if they preserve their electronic records at all.
On June 11th, the House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment held hearings on the Improving Public Access to Documents Act of 2008 (H.R. 6193).
U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) today [June 3rd] introduced the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008 (S.3077), which would expand the information available on USASpending.gov, as well as make the data more accessible and readable. USASpending.gov (aka "Google for Government"), created by the Coburn-Obama Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 and launched in December 2007, makes public information about nearly all Federal grants, contracts, loans and other financial assistance available in a regularly updated, user-friendly, and searchable format.This new legislation would allow USASpending.gov visitors to view copies of Federal contracts, as well as information about competitive bidding, earmarks, government lease agreements, work quality, Federal audit disputes, any violations or criminal activities, Federal tax compliance, and government reports. It would also improve website searchability, provide a method to report errors, ensure data accuracy, and require a quality audit of the website every six months.
Senators Tom Carper (D-DE) and John McCain (R-AZ) are original cosponsors of this legislation.
From the Center for Democracy & Technology:
The Congress and Administration should make global Internet freedom a top human rights and foreign policy priority, CDT said today in testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. The government should closely monitor and report on global Internet freedom and factor progress in this area into criteria for development assistance and conditions for trade agreements. CDT also called for greater cooperation between the U.S. government and the technology industry to better manage human rights risks associated with offering Internet services in repressive countries.
CDT Analysis of the Global Online Freedom Act of 2008 [H.R. 275]
From News.com:
The only Net neutrality proposal to encounter some measure of success in the U.S. Congress is back again for another try.As foreshadowed at a March hearing, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) on Thursday reintroduced the Internet Freedom and Non-discrimination Act, which passed by a 20-13 vote in the same committee in 2006. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) is co-sponsoring the bill, but so far, it is not clear whether any Republicans have signed on.
Just like last time, the bill would rewrite U.S. antitrust law to prohibit network operators like AT&T and Comcast from blocking, impairing, or discriminating against "lawful" Internet content, applications, and services or charging extra fees for "prioritization or enhanced quality of service."
From SLA:
If you have a representative serving on the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, please contact them in support of Orphan Works legislation, but in opposition to the "dark archive" that is proposed in the House version of H.R. 5889. The requirement of the dark archive would overly burden users, while at the same time be of little benefit to owners. The dark archive would require users to file a notice of use with a government agency, significantly increasing the cost of compliance. As we discuss below in greater detail, the requirement of such a filing will dramatically limit the usefulness of the legislation.
From Public Knowledge:
Public Knowledge, the Internet Archive, Association of Public Television Stations and the Association of Research Libraries joined today to praise the work of Senate and House legislators for introducing legislation that would allow for greater use of “orphan works.”. . .. . . While there are differences between the bills, the two pieces of legislation generally follow the Copyright Office recommendation that if a user conducts a reasonably diligent search, they are generally free from high copyright infringement damages; if an owner surfaces, they are compensated for the use of their work. The bills also promote creation of industry guidelines for conducting searches to find owners and encourage use of technology through online databases and visual recognition methods.
The Orphan Works Act of 2008 (HR 5889 and S 2913) "attempts to create a system where new creators can use old works without fear of massive lawsuits, provided that a good faith effort has been made to find out if the work in question is copyrighted."
From the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives:
On Wednesday, April 23 2008, at 2:00 pm in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building, the [House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives] will hold a legislative hearing on H.R. 5811, the “Electronic Communications Preservation Act.” The bill will be introduced prior to Wednesday’s hearing and is expected to have both Chairman Henry Waxman of the Full Committee and Chairman Clay as the original cosponsors.H.R. 5811 will modernize federal recordkeeping by requiring agencies to begin preserving electronic records electronically. The bill requires such electronic preservation for electronic communications such as e-mails, but recommends that agencies preserve all electronic records electronically. In addition, H.R. 5811 creates oversight of the maintenance and preservation of presidential records, including e-mails sent and received by presidential advisors. The bill calls on the Archivist of the United States to establish standards for the management and preservation of these records and to certify that the president is meeting those standards.
From the Washington Post:
Citing "significant deficiencies" in the preservation of e-mail by the White House and federal agencies, House Democrats yesterday introduced legislation to strengthen and modernize electronic record-keeping requirements. But a private watchdog group called the bill inadequate and issued a report describing federal record-keeping as antiquated and chaotic.The group chided the government for following a "print-and-save policy" in which even e-mail is routinely printed out on paper and filed away to comply with federal record-keeping rules. It said the government needs to be pushed to adopt technology and practices common in the private sector.
From the National Security Archive:
Today, the White House sought clarification from the court concerning its ability to restore missing records from backup tapes that are currently being preserved. The White House inquiry comes as the National Security Archive continues to await a ruling by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on its pending motion to extend an e-mail preservation order against the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and to depose relevant witnesses about the state of the White House’s e-mail archiving system. A new bill to establish procedures to assure the preservation of electronic federal and presidential records was introduced this week by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO), and Rep. Paul W. Hodes (D-NH) (H.R. 5811), but that bill would have no effect on the e-mails that are the subject of the pending lawsuit.
As Sunshine Week nears, open-government leaders Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) Wednesday introduced their latest tandem effort to peel back the curtains on government secrecy and further strengthen the nation’s primary open government law, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Their new bill would add new transparency and accountability standards when Congress considers adding new FOIA exemptions to the law. The OPEN FOIA Act would require Congress to explicitly and clearly state its intention to provide for statutory exemptions to FOIA in new legislative proposals.
From the Washington Post:
Two lawmakers have introduced legislation that would prohibit broadband providers from blocking or impairing Web content from competitors.Representatives Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Chip Pickering, a Mississippi Republican, introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act last week. The bill says it is U.S. policy to "guard against unreasonable discriminatory favoritism for, or degredation of, content by network operators based upon its source, ownership, or destination on the Internet."
From the LibraryLaw blog:
Legislation embracing the Digital Promise proposal to establish the National Center for Learning Science and Technology Trust Fund as a pilot program (originally labeled “DO IT”, the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust) was passed by the House of Representatives by a wide margin on Thursday evening, February 7.The proposal, which establishes the National Center for Learning Science and Technology (originally called DOIT) as an independent 501(c)(3) corporation within the Department of Education, was placed into H.R. 4137, the College Opportunity and Affordability Act, and passed by the House of Representatives on Feb. 7th!
From Secrecy News:
A rising tide of criticism of the use of the state secrets privilege to derail litigation against the government has yielded new legislation introduced in the Senate to define the privilege and to limit its use.The state secrets privilege has been invoked with growing frequency to deflect claims of unlawful domestic surveillance, detention, and torture as well as other more mundane complaints, on grounds that adjudicating them would cause unacceptable damage to national security.
But a new bill sponsored by Senators Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) would provide a mechanism for protecting legitimate secrets while also permitting litigation to proceed. . .
. . . Senator Kennedy introduced the State Secrets Protection Act (S. 2533) on January 22.
From the National Journal's Technology Daily, January 23, 2008 PM edition [subscription required]:
The legislative process could become a lot more exciting if lawmakers get their way in freeing the data inside the Library of Congress' legislative Internet database so that independent Web sites can repackage the information.In November, the House Administration Committee asked the library to explore solutions for supplying the public with raw legislative information from the database, dubbed THOMAS, committee spokesman Kyle Anderson said on Wednesday.
From Secrecy News:
Speaking of classification reform, Rep. Jane Harman and 13 Democratic colleagues this week introduced "The Reducing Over-Classification Act of 2007."The legislation focuses on the Department of Homeland Security and aims to make the Department a model of judicious information policy by curtailing classification and other restrictions on disclosure.
From the National Security Archive:
The House of Representatives at 5:18 pm today unanimously passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reform bill (S. 2488) that passed the Senate by unanimous consent on December 14. The bill aims to fix some of the most persistent problems in the FOIA system, including excessive delay, lack of responsiveness, and litigation gamesmanship by federal agencies. Following today’s approval by the House, the OPEN Government Act will be sent to the President's desk for approval.
From the Austin American-Statesman:
The Senate unanimously approved legislation tonight that would strengthen the much beleaguered Freedom of Information Act.The passage of legislation, sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, was seen as a “break through” by the open government community.
An earlier attempt to overhaul the 41-year-old law has been stalled since August over disagreements between the House and Senate versions of the bill.
The Senate’s latest bill is an attempt to iron out those differences.
From Secrecy News:
A bipartisan resolution to provide online public access to Congressional Research Service reports was introduced in the Senate yesterday."The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, in consultation with the Director of the Congressional Research Service, shall make available through a centralized electronic system, for purposes of access and retrieval by the public ... all information described in paragraph (2) that is available through the Congressional Research Service website," the Resolution states.
Exemptions from disclosure are included for copyrighted and personal information, and for reports that are prepared confidentially for an individual member or committee.
The resolution, S. Res. 401, was jointly introduced by Senators Joe Lieberman, John McCain, Susan Collins, Patrick Leahy, John Cornyn and Tom Harkin.
Hearing, U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. E-Government 2.0: Improving Innovation, Collaboration, and Access 12/11/07 10:00 AM (EST).
The hearing was broadcast live and will be available for viewing later here.
Witnesses Testimony is already available online as PDF documents:
• Karen S. Evans, Administrator, Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology , Office of Management and Budget
• John Lewis Needham, Manager, Public Sector Content Partnerships , Google, Inc.
• Ari Schwartz, Deputy Director , Center for Democracy and Technology
• Jimmy Wales, Founder , Wikipedia
From News.com:
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings--or face fines of up to $300,000.That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. It also sweeps in social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail, and it may require that the complete contents of the user's account be retained for subsequent police inspection. . .
. . . Wednesday's vote caught Internet companies by surprise: the Democratic leadership rushed the SAFE Act to the floor under a procedure that's supposed to be reserved for noncontroversial legislation. It was introduced October 10, but has never received even one hearing or committee vote. In addition, the legislation approved this week has changed substantially since the earlier version and was not available for public review.
Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act, or SAFE Act (H.R.3791)
From the Associated Press:
Lawmakers are scrambling to align House and Senate versions of a bill to tighten freedom of information laws in time to pass it this year.But with less than three weeks left before Congress recesses for the holidays, Democratic leaders say the chances of that happening are uncertain.
After talks to reconcile the bills went nowhere, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, presented a new version of their bill Tuesday that would bring its financial issues in line with the House version.
From the Washington Post:
The Senate appears deadlocked over legislation that would require members to file their campaign finance forms electronically -- the method used by their House counterparts, presidential candidates and the majority of state lawmakers.Instead of submitting forms electronically, senators print their reports and deliver them to the clerk's office. The staff there scans them into a computer and transmits them electronically to the Federal Election Commission. The FEC then prints the forms again and hires workers to type the information into a database so they can be made public online.
The practical result is that it can take months for Senate campaign filings to become publicly available. Names of donors to a particular campaign often will not be known until long after Election Day has come and gone.
From the Washington Post:
A key congressional panel endorsed legislation on Tuesday that would bar U.S. Internet companies from cooperating with authorities in China and other repressive regimes.The U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee voted in favor of legislation designed to stop companies such as Yahoo Inc from turning over personal information to governments that use it to suppress dissent.
From News.com:
Despite veto threats from the Bush administration, the House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill that would shield journalists--and some bloggers--from being forced to reveal confidential sources in federal cases.By a 398-21 vote, the politicians backed an amended version of the Free Flow of Information Act. Sponsored by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the proposal offers a "qualified" privilege to anyone engaged in journalism, which it defines as "gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public."
But beware, "casual" bloggers: The privilege isn't meant to apply to you, the bill's sponsors say.
From the Center for Democracy & Technology:
Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John Sununu (R-NH) have introduced a bill to reform National Security Letters -- demands issued by FBI agents without a judge's approval to compel disclosure of financial, telephone, Internet and other records. Under the proposed NSL Reform Act, the FBI could still use an NSL to obtain less sensitive information such as a person's name, address and account identifying information, but more sensitive information such as financial details or logs of the e-mail addresses would require a different process, such as a court order or a subpoena. CDT welcomed the measure as a response to some of the more egregious problems with NSLs that were identified in an Inspector General's report issued in March 2007.
From the Center for Democracy & Technology:
It seems Congress may be getting the message that Internet safety education — rather than mandatory censorship or burdensome regulatory regimes — represents the brightest hope for protecting kids online. In recent weeks, we’ve been pleased to see bills introduced in the House and Senate that direct the Federal Trade Commission to conduct a public awareness and education campaign on Internet safety.Representative Melissa Bean (D-IL) introduced the SAFER NET Act — “Safeguarding America’s Families by Enhancing and Reorganizing New and Efficient Technologies Act” (H.R. 3461) — that directs the FTC to create a program to educate “families, businesses, organizations and other users” about how safely to engage in e-commerce, and protect “against threats to financial information and privacy, threats from cyber-crime, and threats to juveniles, including cyber-predators and material that is inappropriate for minors.”
Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) introduced a bill (S. 1965) with nearly identical language. His “Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act” also directs the FTC to conduct a public awareness and education campaign, but with the narrower focus of promoting “safe online activity for children,” protecting “children from cyber-crimes, including crimes by online predators,” and helping “parents shield their children from material that is inappropriate for minors.” (Although CDT supports the education provisions of this bill, we have serious concerns about other parts of the legislation.)
Both the SAFER NET Act and the Stevens bill would provide substantial funding for these education campaigns: approximately $10 million over the next two years.
From OMB Watch:
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 10-9 to approve the Toxic Right-to-Know Protection Act (S. 595) on July 31. The act would reverse a December 2006 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule change to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) that significantly reduced toxic release reporting requirements for polluting facilities.
From Secrecy News:
One day after President Bush signed into law a bill that requires public disclosure of the national intelligence budget, the House of Representatives adopted an amendment to prevent that requirement from taking effect. . .. . . Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) offered an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act on August 4 that would prohibit budget disclosure. Without any debate, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) announced that the amendment was accepted.
The Issa amendment will have to be addressed in a House-Senate conference before it effectively repeals the new disclosure requirement.
From the National Security Archive:
The United States Senate yesterday (August 3rd) joined the House in passing bipartisan legislation that will fix several of the most glaring problems with the U.S. Freedom of Information Act that were identified in six government-wide audits of FOIA practice carried out by the National Security Archive. The legislation, authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tx.), overcame a hold placed by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Az) on behalf of Alberto Gonzales' Justice Department. It passed late Friday evening by unanimous consent, on the last day of the Congressional session before the August recess.After a conference to reconcile provisions between the House and Senate versions, the new law will mandate tracking numbers for FOIA requests that take longer than 10 days to process so they will no longer fall through the cracks, require agencies to report more accurately to Congress on their FOIA programs, create a new ombuds office at the National Archives to mediate conflicts between agencies and requesters, clarify the purpose of FOIA to encourage dissemination of government information, and provide incentives to agencies to avoid litigation and processing delays.
From the New York Times:
Legislation requiring organizations that raise money for presidential libraries to disclose who is funneling donations to their efforts is set to be considered by a Senate panel, despite unresolved objections from one committee member.
From the Center for Democracy & Technology:
The Senate Commerce Committee today passed the Child Safe Viewing Act of 2007 (S. 602), which requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to study the "existence and availability" of filtering technologies for audio and video content transmitted over "wired, wireless, and Internet" platforms, as well as other devices. CDT does not oppose a purely fact-finding study, but maintains that a neutral, non-regulatory body such as the National Academy of Sciences would be better suited to such a project. More importantly, CDT is concerned that this legislation may represent a step toward expanding the FCC's censorship authority to include Internet content.
From News.com:
A congressional panel on Wednesday voted, against the Bush administration's wishes, to shield journalists including advertising-supported bloggers from having to reveal their confidential sources in many situations.By a voice vote only after politicians spent nearly two hours airing various misgivings, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee approved an amended version of the Free Flow of Information Act. Chiefly sponsored by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.), it proposes protection for a wider set of people than previous years' versions.
From The Raw Story:
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) issued a Friday afternoon statement criticizing Republican colleagues for holding up an open government bill that seeks to reform the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and end delays in government compliance with requests for information.
From Secrecy News:
For the first time since it began debating the issue more than three decades ago, Congress is now poised to adopt legislation that will require -- not merely recommend -- public disclosure of the total national intelligence budget."Not later than 30 days after the end of each fiscal year beginning with fiscal year 2007, the Director of National Intelligence shall disclose to the public the aggregate amount of funds appropriated by Congress for the National Intelligence Program for such fiscal year," states the House-Senate conference agreement on H.R. 1 (section 601), the massive bill to implement recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
From Press Esc:
US senators today made a bipartisan call for the universal implementation of filtering and monitoring technologies on the Internet in order to protect children at the end of a Senate hearing for which civil liberties groups were not invited.Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Vice Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) both argued that Internet was a dangerous place where parents alone will not be able to protect their children.