FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2023
Media Contact: Mary Tablante, media@aasforum.org
Washington, DC—Late last week, the US House of Representatives unanimously passed the Davidson-Jacobs amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a “must-pass” piece of legislation that determines the annual budget for the US Department of Defense. The amendment closes the Department’s data broker loophole, which would put an end to the government practice of buying Americans’ information.
Recent reports have confirmed that the US government continues to purchase Americans’ private data from contracted data brokers that collect information from Americans’ web browsers, phones, and personal vehicles. A report published last month by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence raised the concern that this widely-available data could be misused by government officials to “facilitate blackmail, stalking, harassment, and public shaming.”
AASF Executive Director Gisela Perez Kusakawa said, “We are encouraged that the House passed the Davidson-Jacobs amendment without a single dissenting vote. Americans of all political perspectives want to be protected from warrantless government surveillance and free from discriminatory investigations that many in the Asian American scholar community have been unjustly subjected to. We are grateful that Members of the House worked together to protect Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights, and we urge Congress to keep this critical amendment intact through final passage of the Defense spending bill.”
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Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) is a national non-profit that promotes academic belonging, openness, freedom, and equality for all. In response to heightened anti-Asian sentiments and profiling in the U.S., AASF has been a leading national voice fighting for the rights of Asian American and immigrant scientists, researchers, and scholars. AASF membership includes members from the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, in addition to past and current university presidents, provost, vice provosts, deans, associate deans and past and current department chairs.