Committee members seek info on DHS use of satellites

Key House Homeland Security Committee Democrats demanded Monday that the Homeland Security Department provide Congress with more information on how a new office that coordinates the use of space satellites will legally operate and protect the privacy and rights of U.S. citizens.

Comment on this article in The Forum.In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the lawmakers said they will prevent the office from opening until their concerns are addressed.

Bush administration officials finalized a charter last month outlining how the National Applications Office will operate within the department.

The office will help government agencies access satellites for nontraditional uses such as border security and emergency response. Administration officials do not rule out using the office to assist state and local law enforcement agencies.

Congress prohibited Homeland Security Department funds from being used to begin operations until the department certifies the office complies with all laws, and until the certification is reviewed by the GAO.

Although the charter is complete, the department has yet to submit to Congress the legal underpinnings and standard operating procedures for the office, according to the letter from House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., along with Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee Chairwoman Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Homeland Security Management Subcommittee Chairman Chris Carney, D-Pa.

"The legal framework and SOPs should be completed as a seamless package so privacy and civil liberties are approached holistically and not haphazardly," they wrote. "Should you proceed with the NAO without addressing our concerns, we will take appropriate steps to discontinue it."

The department expects to send Congress key additional documents for the NAO this week, a Homeland Security spokeswoman said. They will include certification that NAO complies with all laws, a privacy impact assessment, a civil rights impact assessment, and the standard operating procedures, she said. The package of documents can then be reviewed by GAO.

She noted that the department's inspector general wrote in an unclassified report last week that the NAO is making good progress on privacy protections. The full report remains classified.

"In addition, we have been clear that the NAO will not be used for law enforcement purposes until such time that all legal, privacy and civil rights and civil liberties issues have been considered carefully and resolved, and Congress has been briefed," the spokeswoman added. "The department continues to take preparatory steps so that we can stand up the NAO once the congressional requirements have been met."

Among those steps is posting job openings for the office, a move that particularly irked Thompson, Harman and Carney.

"Instead of bringing on staff and touting the NAO's promise to potential customers, job number one needs to be the completion of a detailed legal framework and SOPs applicable to all NAO domains -- including the law enforcement domain -- without delay," they wrote.

"Only after we have had an opportunity to review these documents and to bring the privacy and civil liberties community into the process should NAO commence hiring and other development efforts," they added.

A committee aide said that, even if the requested documents are submitted, the committee must undertake a careful review to ensure that privacy, civil rights and civil liberties are protected.

"But even beyond those specific documents, DHS has not clarified appropriate and inappropriate uses to its potential customers," the aide said. "Whether you're a sheriff or an emergency manager, you should know exactly what the NAO can and can't provide and what is or is not an appropriate use of domestic intelligence."