February 12, 2003

ATLANTA/WASHINGTON, DC: The Southeastern Legal Foundation, which researched and first alerted the public to the constitutional privacy dangers with the proposed Total Information Awareness (TIA) plan last November, today welcomed its death at the hands of U.S. House leaders. Recently, the U.S. Senate unanimously put the brakes on the Pentagon-sponsored program, which is led by retired Adm. John Poindexter, once convicted of lying to Congress.

"In the days before the now-famous William Safire critique of the national TIA database, our policy and legal staff questioned TIA's potential threat to civil liberties, and raised such concerns with Senate and House members," said Phil Kent, SLF President. "It is gratifying that, when members became educated about what could have become the world's largest electronic dragnet prying into the personal information of every American, lawmakers turned thumbs down to this dangerous project."

The TIA project was initially included in the Homeland Security Act passed by Congress and signed into law in December 2002. U.S. Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) immediately called for hearings into the potential effects of TIA's implementation on constitutional privacy rights. "We were pleased that the two Senators, as well as U.S. Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), were very receptive to legal analysis on this proposal," said Kent.

While Senate and House members now indicate their desire to put the brakes on TIA, the project remains included in the law of the land, Kent said. "The only obstacles to killing and defunding TIA would be the failure of the House and Senate conferees to reach agreement on the overall spending bill in which TIA is included, or successful veto of the bill by President Bush," said Kent. "We hope that the President has taken note of the overwhelming congressional opposition to TIA."

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