Letter From Phil Gringley


Thank you for contacting me regarding the proposed CAPPS II program of the Transportation Security Administration. I appreciate the benefit of your views on civil liberties and our right to privacy.

As you may know, Under Secretary of Transportation for Security Adm. James M. Loy announced that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will develop a passenger risk assessment and prescreening system, also known as the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System II (CAPPS II). CAPPS II is an automated screening system authorized by Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It is a narrowly focused threat assessment tool, based on continuously changing intelligence information and threat priorities. As a resource management tool, it will help TSA direct limited on-site screening resources to where they are most needed.

CAPPS II is being designed with the utmost concern for individual privacy rights. CAPPS II is a passive system activated by a traveler's airline reservation request. When the system is implemented, airlines will begin asking passengers for a slightly expanded amount of reservation information: the passenger's full name plus address, phone number and date of birth. This is the only public source information that TSA will collect for CAPPS II.

The attacks of September 11 were one of the most tragic events in the United States' history. Like you, I believe it would be a further tragedy if we allowed our attackers the victory of changing the free and open society in which we live. While changes to our lives and laws are necessary to adequately arm law enforcement and the military to prevent future attacks, these changes must not violate the civil liberties that are at the core of the American Constitution.

I understand your concern that some actions taken by the government may overstep the bounds of Constitutional permissibility, but I believe that the Administration has been working in good faith not to cross Constitutional lines. Similarly, Congress, in working to provide law enforcement with more tools to combat terrorism, has been careful to include protections for Americans' civil liberties.

Certainly, we live in difficult times and some changes are inevitable. The question is whether these changes will effect the core of what it means to live in America. I will work to ensure that they do not. Rest assured, I will continue to monitor this situation with these principles and your thoughts in mind.

Thank you again for contacting me on this issue. Please feel free to contact me again in the future on this or any other issue of importance to you. You may also like to know you can contact me by emailing me at gingrey.ga@mail.house.gov, or you are welcome to register your ideas at my website, www.house.gov/gingrey.