My Wife Faces Homeland Security: Congressional Update

The saga of government intrusion into the private lives of government workers continues. Congress is now taking up the issue of Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12, a directive intended to, quite reasonably, standardize ID cards in government facilities to include contractors and students.

I introduced the issues surrounding the implemtation of Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12 (HSPD #12) in Sept. of 2007. I discussed the way implementation of this directive requires a government employee to sign away their Constitutional Rights, allowing the government free access to their medical records, financial records, etc. I discussed the potential anti-gay aspect of one part of the process, the so-called "Suitability Matrix." And I published a resignation letter from a woman who had been an employee at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) for more than 30 years but resigned over the intrusive implementation of HSPD #12. Since then I have updated you on the ups and downs of the court case filed by some NASA employees. Currently there is an injunction preventing implementation of HSPD #12 at JPL pending an appeal, but where my wife works, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in Manhattan, implementation continues. My wife has been told that all employees and contractors (she's a student) will be processed soon at GISS. For my wife it is a race between her finishing her Ph.D. and moving to a non-NASA job and the slow pace of the NASA bureaucracy demanding she sign away her rights to the government.

The latest development is that Congress is finally taking up the matter. Here is a press release from the plaintiffs at JPL:

U.S. Congress to Hold Hearings on Federal Employee Background Checks

For direct information from the U.S. Congress:
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
U.S. House of Representatives
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-5051

For Immediate Release:
NOTICE OF CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE HEARINGS ON HSPD#12
When: Wednesday April 9, 2008 at 2 P.M.
Where: 2247 Rayburn Office Building, Washington DC

A House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee chaired by Congressman Edolphus Towns of New York will hold hearings on Wednesday April 9, 2008, on the status of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 and its impact on federal employees and contractors. According to the subcommittee website, “The hearing will release a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report finding that the program is incurring high costs but providing little benefit to date, and will explore the impact that implementation of the program may have on the current security clearance issuance backlog.”

As currently implemented, HSPD#12 requires federal employees and contractors to submit to intrusive and detailed background investigations into all matters of their personal lives. If an employee in good standing declines to permit these investigations he or she will be denied access to federal facilities and hence lose his or her job. Federal employees and contractors have voiced concerns about HSPD#12 to the courts and to congress. Last year, four senior-level scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (managed by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena) wrote to Congressmen Rush Holt and Vern Ehlers requesting congressional review of HSPD12. JPL employees also took the matter to court.

Robert M. Nelson, a Senior Research Scientist at JPL and the lead plaintiff in the JPL case said, “These congressional hearings are an important development in this case insofar as they point out the high cost and the low efficacy of the HSPD12 program. Of further importance is that the background checks being conducted under HSPD12 fly in the face of traditional American values as specified in the U.S. Constitution. Congress has taken a first step in restoring balance between our constitutional rights and national security by releasing this report. The bottom line, however, is that these investigations are morally wrong.”
Background:

The JPL legal case evolves from a hearing last year in which employees of NASA’s JPL sought injunctive relief against their employer, Caltech, and NASA in order to prevent intrusive personal background investigations. Caltech and NASA argued that these intrusions were required under Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12, an executive order signed by President George W. Bush. Most JPL employees (including all of the plaintiffs in the case) do no classified work.

Federal District Judge Otis Wright III [editor's note: a Bush appointee] dismissed the case on October 3, 2007. The employees appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and an emergency temporary injunction was granted on October, 5 2007, just hours before JPL was to begin advertising for replacements for those employees who were deemed non-compliant.

A second panel of the Ninth Circuit Court heard arguments on this case on December 5. On January 11, 2008, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that “The Appellants have demonstrated serious questions as to certain of their claims on which they are likely to succeed on the merits, and the balance of hardships tips sharply in their favor. We therefore conclude that the district court abused its discretion in denying Appellants’ motion for a preliminary injunction, and we reverse and remand.” In addition, the Ninth Circuit Court reinstated Caltech as a defendant in the case stating, “The court found Caltech did do more [than merely follow government orders]—it established, on its own initiative, a policy that JPL employees who failed to obtain federal identification badges would not simply be denied access to JPL, they would be terminated entirely from Caltech’s employment.”

All court documents relevant to the case can be found at HSPD12JPL.org

Ed Towns is a Congressman from my area (not my district, but a neighboring district). I have often disagreed with him, but I am glad he is doing this. I am wondering if newly elected Congressman Bill Foster (a Fermilab physicist) had anything to do with Congress taking up this issue. For those who want to contact their Congressman on this issue, here are the members of that subcommittee:

Democrats
* Chairman Henry A. Waxman, California
* Rep. Edolphus Towns, New York
* Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, Pennsylvania
* Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, New York
* Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland
* Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
* Rep. Danny K. Davis, Illinois
* Rep. John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
* Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay, Missouri
* Rep. Diane E. Watson, California
* Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts
* Rep. Brian Higgins, New York
* Rep. John A. Yarmuth, Kentucky
* Rep. Bruce L. Braley, Iowa
* Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Columbia
* Rep. Betty McCollum, Minnesota
* Rep. Jim Cooper, Tennessee
* Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
* Rep. Paul W. Hodes, New Hampshire
* Rep. Christopher S. Murphy, Connecticut
* Rep. John P. Sarbanes, Maryland
* Rep. Peter Welch, Vermont

Republicans
* Rep. Tom Davis, Virginia, Ranking Minority Member
* Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana
* Rep. Christopher Shays, Connecticut
* Rep. John M. McHugh, New York
* Rep. John L. Mica, Florida
* Rep. Mark E. Souder, Indiana
* Rep. Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania
* Rep. Chris Cannon, Utah
* Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr., Tennessee
* Rep. Michael Turner, Ohio
* Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California
* Rep. Kenny Marchant, Texas
* Rep. Lynn A. Westmoreland, Georgia
* Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina
* Rep. Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
* Rep. Brian Bilbray, California
* Rep. Bill Sali, Idaho
* Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio

You can find contact info for your Congressional Rep here.

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