Thread: Congress Coaxes States to Collect DNA

Congress Coaxes States to Collect DNA
By David Kravets May 20, 2010 | 3:35 pm | Categories: Crime, privacy


Federal lawmakers are using the purse strings to coax more states into adopting rules that require suspects who are arrested for various crimes — but not charged — to submit to DNA sampling for inclusion into a nationwide database.

It doesn’t matter if the suspect was charged or even acquitted.

Sponsored by Harry Teague (D-New Mexico), the measure provides $75 million to the nation’s financially broken states — all in a bid to coax the 11 states with such DNA-testing laws to keep them on the books, and to entice others to follow suit. The Senate Judiciary Committee received the package Wednesday, a day after the House passed the bill on a 357 to 32 vote.

All Democrats voting approved the bill, CNET’s Declan McCullagh points out. And it’s likely to sail through the Senate. President Barack Obama, who supports DNA collection upon arrest, is expected to sign it.

The House’s passage of the so-called “Katie’s Law,â€

Originally Posted by BetsyRoss

Congress Coaxes States to Collect DNA
By David Kravets May 20, 2010 | 3:35 pm | Categories: Crime, privacy

This came out in 2008:


http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/su ... 651570_ITM

Building a DNA database: the federal government has just enacted two bills related to DNA. The first would drive the collection of DNA from all infants. The second would attempt to prevent the DNA that is collected from being misused.(PRIVACY)

The New American

The passage of two bills in the Senate and the House, and the recent signing of those bills into law by President Bush, provides an object lesson in the type of logic that governs the coercive state. Simply put, the actions of an intrusive government necessitate further actions by that government to attempt to undo the unintended negative consequences of the initial government actions, but pushy politicians simply don't care. Or so it seems.

The bills in question are known as the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007 and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) of 2008. The Newborn Screening Act passed via an unrecorded voice vote in both houses. GINA had been under discussion in one form or another since about 1995, and passed by a vote of 420 to 3 in the House and 95 to 0 in the Senate.

The official summary of the Newborn Screening Act states that it is "a bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to establish grant programs to provide for education and outreach on newborn screening and coordinated follow-up care once newborn screening has been conducted." This is legislative codespeak for using grant money to coerce healthcare providers to "provide outreach," i.e., collect and transfer genetic data to the state.

The official summary of GINA states that it is "a bill to prohibit discrimination on the basis of genetic information with respect to health insurance and employment," meaning it uses …


Unrecorded voice vote?