FC: The Fed's Deadbeat Database

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,32435,00.html

                     The Fed's Deadbeat Database 
                     by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

                     4:00 p.m. 9.Nov.1999 PST 
                     A vast federal database will be used to
                     identify Americans who default on
                     student loans or who should not be
                     receiving unemployment benefits,
                     according to a bill scheduled for debate
                     Wednesday by the US House of
                     Representatives. 

                     The measure would require the
                     Department of Health and Human
                     Services to use a national list of current
                     public and private-sector employees to
                     track people suspected of cheating the
                     government out of money. 

                     The American Civil Liberties Union and
                     some conservative groups are trying to
                     rally last-minute opposition to the
                     measure, which proponents say would
                     reduce fraud by as much as US$800
                     million a year. 

                     [...]



[From the ACLU]

November 9, 1999

RE:  H.R. 3073, THE "FATHERS COUNT ACT"

Dear Representative:

We are writing to urge you to oppose H.R. 3073, the "Fathers Count Act,"
because it would entangle government in the affairs of churches and other
houses of worship while violating the religious liberty rights of program
beneficiaries, and because it would expand the uses of the "New Hires
Database"
in violation of the privacy interests of U.S. workers. Congressman Edwards
will
offer an amendment that addresses some, but not all of these problems.  While
we urge you to support the Edwards amendment, the problems in the bill that
would remain compel us to recommend that you oppose the bill even if the
Edwards amendment is adopted.

Under current law, "religiously affiliated" organizations can receive public
funds and provide social services.  The "charitable choice" provision of the
bill would change current law to permit all religious institutions, including
pervasively sectarian organizations, such as places of worship, to use
taxpayer
dollars for programs in which program beneficiaries may be proselytized.
It is
virtually impossible for faith-based counseling programs to segregate the
secular service from the religious message.  Funding for such programs would
therefore violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.  See
Bowen v.
Kendrick, 487 U.S. 589 (1988).  

Because government dollars trigger government oversight, the "charitable
choice" provision would also impermissibly entangle the government with
religion in violation of the Establishment Clause.  The bill would also allow
religious providers to engage in religious discrimination against employees
paid with taxpayer dollars.  Although religious institutions are permitted to
hire co-religionists in the context of private religious activity, the
employment provision effectively would allow religious organizations to
discriminate in hiring for jobs paid for with federal funds.  

We urge you to support Congressman Edwards' amendment because it addresses the
unconstitutional provisions in the section of this bill regarding the
"applicability of charitable choice provisions of welfare reform."   The
Edwards amendment ensures that only faith-based organizations that are not
pervasively sectarian will be able to receive federal grants to provide
certain
social services. The amendment is consistent with current law and merely
restores the appropriate constitutional safeguards that exist to protect both
the beneficiaries and providers of publicly-funded social service programs.
However, the Edwards amendment does not address the problem of taxpayer-funded
employment discrimination by the religious organizations that will be
providing
services funded by the government under this act.  For this reason, and for
the
reason below, we urge you to oppose the Father's Count Act regardless of
whether the Edwards amendment is adopted. 

The bill would also help turn employers' gates into government checkpoints. 
When a person accepts a job, they do not expect that the government will rifle
through their personal information and make a report about them to others.  In
the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act,
Congress required that a database of all new hires -- with worker name,
address
and SSN, and the employer's name and Taxpayer ID Number -- be created
primarily
for the purpose of collecting child support payments.  

However, sections 501 and 606 of the bill would permit new uses of the New
Hires Database.  Under H.R. 3073, this database would also be used to match
new
hire information for the purposes of collecting on student loans and
administering unemployment benefits. Our society doesn't permit the government
to perform a physical search of each person when they take a new job, why
should it permit the government to conduct an informational search about a new
worker just because they have accepted a new job?   This provision breaches an
implicit privacy promise Congress and the Administration made in 1996 to allow
use of the New Hires Database only for the purposes authorized in the welfare
bill, and it does so without notice to the worker and worker access to the
information being shared about him or her to ensure accuracy.  

We urge you to oppose this legislation.  For more information, please contact
Terri Ann Schroeder at 202/675-2324 or Gregory T. Nojeim at 202/675-2326.

Sincerely,



Laura W. Murphy
Director



Terri Ann Schroeder
Legislative Representative



Gregory T. Nojeim
Legislative Counsel



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