Senate Homeland Security Committee Advances Measure Letting Agencies Crack Down on Personal E-mail

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted to advance the Federal Information Systems Safeguard Act, a bill that would allow federal agencies to bypass employee unions in order to block access to webmail and other websites deemed security risks. The committee unanimously voted to approve the measure May 25 along with more than a dozen other bills relating to government management. The legislation "puts us on a path forward to ensure that federal agencies can act quickly to address any vulnerabilities and secure their IT networks,” said Sen Joni Ernst (R-IA), who introduced the Senate version of the “Federal Information Systems Safeguard Act.” The bill allows agency heads to bypass federal rules requiring them to consult with unions about workplace matters in order “to limit, restrict, or prohibit access to any website the head of the agency determines to present a current or future security weakness.”

The Senate bill’s language is less expansive than that included in a similar bill passed out of a key House committee earlier in 2016. The House version, which would allow agency heads to "take any action" necessary to remediate security vulnerabilities, came under fire from Democratic Reps who called the bill “dangerously overbroad” and ripe for abuse by agency heads. "No matter what you believe about blocking employee access to e-mail, this bill goes so far beyond that it loses the point," said Rep Elijah Cummings (D-MD), in a statement at the time.