ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 11, Number 99 December 5, 2002 In This Issue: New Provisions in E-Government Act On November 15, 2002, the House and Senate unanimously passed a modified version of the E-Government Act, which President Bush is expected to sign. This is legislation that the library community has been involved with since its initiation and in support of which Sharon Hogan (2001-2002 Committee on Legislation chair) testified in July 2001. To read the testimony, go to http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/071101_hogan.htm. While the legislation changed in a number of ways since then, its passage is a large step in the direction of better federal executive branch management of information over its life-cycle, with public access being a key focus. The legislation creates a number of new opportunities for the public, libraries, and others concerned with information access to participate in the process. The bill also contains important provisions regarding the privacy implications of government information systems, digital divide concerns, and community technology centers. While the bill remained mostly intact as it moved through the House and Senate, there were a few significant changes from the original Senate version, which the Senate passed on June 27, 2002. New provisions include: Confidential Statistical Information Protection The bill as passed adds a new title, Title V, which ensures that data or information acquired by an agency under a pledge of confidentiality for exclusively statistical purposes shall not be disclosed by an agency in an "identifiable form" (any representation of information that permits the identity of the respondent to be reasonably inferred by either direct or indirect means) to anyone not authorized by this law, nor be used for any non-statistical purpose Other changes include: Title I - Office of Management and Budget Electronic Government Services creating a new Chapter 36 to Title 44 U.S. Code; making the Administrator of the Office of Electronic Government a position that does not require Senate confirmation; creating a "Program to encourage innovative solutions to enhance electronic government services and processes"; Title II - Federal Management and Promotion of Electronic Government Services changing the responsibility for prescribing rules to "protect privacy and security concerns relating to electronic filing of documents and the public availability of documents filed electronically" from the Judicial Conference of the U.S. to the Supreme Court; expanding the time available for completion of some of the requirements placed on the Interagency Committee on Government Information, the Director of OMB, and the agencies (from 180 days to a year, and from 1 year to 2 years); changing responsibility for various reports, studies, etc. from various Directors (NSF, IMLS, Office of Science and Technology Policy) and departmental Secretaries to either the Director of OMB or the Administrator. There are other minor changes in language in various parts of the bill that do not significantly change the effect of the provisions. The key provisions of the Act from the library and access communities' perspective are: Section 101 creates a specific position in OMB for the Administrator of the Office of Electronic Government. Initially the bill created a Chief Information Officer for the federal government - more or less parallel to the Director (or Deputy Director) of OMB, but the Administration refused to agree and the legislators acceded to OMB's wishes. The new position - which essentially codifies the current practice, under which Associate Director Mark Forman heads up e-government efforts - does not have a lot of direct power. As a statutorily authorized position it will be subject, however, to more consistent Congressional oversight and will be at par with the Administrator of OIRA. Section 205 requires each federal court to establish a Web sites where the public can get court rules, decisions, docket information and documents filed with the court in electronic information. The section requires the Supreme Court to adopt rules to protect privacy and security concerns relating to the electronic filing and availability of documents. Section 206 requires federal regulatory agencies, "to the extent practicable," to ensure that a publicly accessible federal government Web site includes all information that the agency is required to publish in the Federal Register, and to accept electronic submissions in rulemaking proceedings Section 207 calls for the establishment of an "Interagency Committee on Government Information". Within two years, the Committee is to recommend standards for the categorization of Government information in a way that is searchable electronically and interoperable across agencies. At the same time, the Committee is recommend policies and procedures regarding public access to Government information on the Internet and other electronic records. Within a year after Committee recommendations are made, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Archivist of the United States are to issue Federal policy requiring compliance and laying out specific schedules for initial implementation. Section 207 also requires OMB, within two years, to provide specific guidance for agency websites. Agencies are required to determine which Government information will be accessible to the public on the Internet and by other means and when such accessibility will occur. The determinations and schedules are to be posted for public comment on the Internet as well as being submitted to OMB. In the same two years, OMB and the agencies are to collaborate on a public domain directory of public Federal Government websites, including a public domain taxonomy of subject categories. This directory building effort is to include input from librarians, information technology managers, program managers, records managers, and other interested parties. Also, Sub-section 207(g) requires OMB and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to establish a government-wide repository that compiles information about federally-funded research and development. Section 212 directs OMB, within three years and in consultation with agencies, the regulated community, public interest organizations, and the public, to study and report to Congress on progress toward integrating Federal information systems across agencies. The study is to address the integration of data elements used in the electronic collection of information and the feasibility of software tools for assembling, documenting, and validating the information. It is also to address the feasibility of a distributed information system that provides public access to information integrated across participating agencies. This data integration study effort is to be informed by a series of no more than 5 pilot projects. It has been noted that such initiatives have positive implications for electronic Freedom of Information Act requests, but may have negative implications for privacy, by potentially allowing even greater amalgamation of personally-identifiable information in the hands of disparate government agencies. Section 208 requires federal government agencies to conduct privacy impact assessments before developing or procuring information technology or initiating any new collections of personally-identifiable information. The privacy impact assessment must address what information is to be collected, why it is being collected, the intended uses of the information, with whom the information will be shared, what notice would be provided to individuals and how the information will be secured. To the extent practicable, privacy impact assessments must be published. The Director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will issue guidelines for the assessments. Section 213 (f) requires the Administrator of E-Gov to develop an online tutorial explaining how to access government information services and information on the Internet. Section 215 requires a National Academy of Sciences study on the digital divide. Section 216 codifies under law the long-standing and on-going work of the Federal Geographic Data Committee in facilitating the development of common protocols for the development, acquisition, maintenance, distribution, and application of geographic information. Sections 501-513 establish a very strict rule of confidentiality for information collected by the federal government for statistical purposes, which may prove to be especially important as Zip Code and other data that is not strictly personal becomes easier to use for personal profiling purposes. The Act does not apply to Congressional information or practices. See our web page at www.ala.org/washoff/egovact.html for a more in-depth review of the key provisions of the bill from the library community's perspective. Special thanks to Ari Schwart of CDT, and Eliot Christian for their assistance. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Camille Bowman, Mary Costabile, Don Essex, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell, Claudette Tennant. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.