

In June the U.S. House passed bill to ban full-body scanners as primary method - jlujan
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h2200/show

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ckinnan
The vote was overwhelming 310-118 against the scanners. Here's the Roll Call
vote: (June '09)

<http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll305.xml>

Unfortunately, the Senate didn't take up the bill. Still it is stunning that
the Obama Administration and TSA would disregard the clear will of Congress on
this issue. Here's the text of the amendment from THOMAS (no permanent link):

H.AMDT.172 (A010) Amends: H.R.2200 Sponsor: Rep Chaffetz, Jason [UT-3]
(offered 6/4/2009)

AMENDMENT DESCRIPTION: Amendment prohibits the TSA from using Whole Body-
Imaging machines for primary screening at airports; and would require the TSA
to give passengers the option of a pat-down search in lieu of going through a
WBI machine. The amendment also prohibits the TSA from storing, transferring,
or copying any images resulting from going through a WBI machine.

AMENDMENT PURPOSE: An amendment numbered 10 printed in House Report 111-127 to
prohibit the TSA from using Whole Body-Imaging machines for primary screening
at airports, and would require the TSA to give passengers the option of a pat-
down search in place of going through a WBI machine, information on the images
generated by the WBI, the privacy policies in place, and the right to request
a pat-down search, and would prohibit the TSA from storing, transferring, or
copying the images.

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marze
The public doesn't know very much about these scanners. There are only one or
two public images allegedly taken in a scanner, but not with the “arms in the
air” pose required for actual air travelers.

To correct this, in every airport a collection of volunteers who don’t mind
people seeing them “xray-naked” should be sent through the scanner, just like
normal operation, and the pictures should be displayed next to the security
line so everyone in line can make up their own mind if they want to be scanned
or would prefer to opt out for manual screening.

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palish
You mean prefer to have their balls touched?

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AgentConundrum
I'd just like to point out that the "In June" mentioned to in the title
actually refers to June _2009_.

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dasil003
What a great website. I'm probably not politically active enough, but I hadn't
seen it before.

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cpharmston
For civically-minded hackers, OpenCongress has a great API:

API Documentation: <http://www.opencongress.org/api> My Python bindings:
<https://github.com/cpharmston/python-opencongress> Ruby bindings:
<https://github.com/hoverbird/opencongress-ruby>

~~~
jlujan
Just another example of how private business and hackers are more effective at
creating open and accessible government data.

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ams1
Permalink directly to relevant section:
[http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h2200/text?version=rfs&...](http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h2200/text?version=rfs&nid=t0:rfs:316)

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jlujan
Refer to Sec 215 of bill.

