Amendment likely to prevent e-gov act reauthorization

OMB officials and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman and ranking member Susan Collins have battled behind the scenes in recent months to reauthorize the E-Government Act of 2002 before President Bush leaves office, but a standoff in the Judiciary Committee has probably killed the bill, sources said Wednesday.

The statute expired last year and was intended to streamline government information and improve communication between agencies and citizens. The bill to reauthorize it was introduced by Lieberman and Collins in November 2007. It passed their committee almost a year later. Since September, the bill was hotlined twice but faced objections from Republicans.

OMB Deputy Director Clay Johnson and his e-government chief Karen Evans have lobbied hard on its behalf.

An amendment by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy to include new privacy protections has caused much of the discontent. His language was accepted by the bill's sponsors and the Bush administration.

It would require federal agencies to conduct privacy impact assessments before using outside contractors to manage personal information. At the time, Leahy said his amendment took a "small but important step" to address the growing problem of lax data security practices by government contractors.

Judiciary members Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, as well as Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who is not on the committee, are said to have threatened holds on the bill.

Budgetary concerns raised by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., apparently have been addressed. The CBO estimated the bill, which would also add language to ensure government information is accessible via commercial search engines, would cost about $29 billion through 2012.

One GOP aide said Leahy's amendment is "very controversial and really needs to be the subject of some hearings or other process before it is considered."

The staffer argued the amendment is unrelated to the e-government reauthorization itself, which has no Republican detractors. Leahy seems willing to sink the reauthorization if his amendment is not added, the aide said, noting that "he has taken a hostage, and has expressed a willingness to shoot it."

But a Democratic staffer insisted Leahy's text, which was drawn from a separate data privacy bill he co-sponsored with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was the result of consultations with OMB, Collins, and Lieberman.

No senator has stepped forward with specific concerns, the aide said, and Leahy is unwilling to "blindly drop his amendment." Even if the disagreement were to end in the Senate, a companion bill would have to be introduced and move through the House.