The GOP House Just Approved Tracking Devices for People with Disabilities

The House passed a bill Thursday morning that empowers the Department of Justice to establish a system whereby people with autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and other mental impairments are equipped with tracking devices, in case they wander off. H.R. 4919 passed 346 to 66 under a suspension of the rules, meaning that no amendments to the bill could be offered.

Better known as Kevin and Avonte’s Law — named after two children with autism who wandered off and drowned — the bill allows for the DOJ to award $2 million in grants to help states in “designing, establishing, and operating locative tracking technology programs” for people with mental disabilities.

“This legislation will assist communities in receiving valuable education on how to prevent individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and children with autism from wandering, and to respond quickly and appropriately in cases in which they do,” said House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. (D, 64%), per the New York Daily News.

The bill has incited passion from autism and Alzheimer’s advocacy groups, as well as those who are concerned about civil liberties and government overreach. Last week, the bill was scheduled for a House Judiciary Committee markup, but was postponed.

As Conservative Review reported at the time, “Multiple sources on the Hill with knowledge of the situation said that the hearing was cancelled after several GOP committee members voiced concerns about how the language dealt with privacy and civil liberty issues.”

After the Judiciary Committee markup was cancelled, the language of Kevin and Avonte’s Law was changed, so that the tracking devices overseen by the DOJ were less permanent and invasive than the ones originally proposed.

The language change “is still not good enough,” Robert Romano, senior editor at Americans for Limited Government, stated in a press release Wednesday: “There shouldn’t be any bill, because there shouldn’t be a program no matter how well-intentioned overseen by the Attorney General electronically tracking people in this manner.”

Nevertheless, the bill was brought up for a quick vote on Thursday, the last day of the House’s lame-duck legislative session before the new year.

A House source told Conservative Review that, as of last week, an informal whip count of the Judiciary Committee found that a majority of members on the committee were opposed to the bill. It is extremely uncommon for a bill to bypass a committee markup in this way and be brought to the floor under suspension of the rules, the source stated. The bill may be brought up in the Senate for a vote in the next 24 hours, where it is expected to pass with ease and head to President Obama’s desk for signature.

Despite its swift passage through the House, concerns abound for this bill. Government-run tracking devices “would violate the Fourth Amendment as an unreasonable search. And it would violate the Fifth Amendment’s deprivation of liberty without due process,” says Romano, of the “human tracking device bill.”

“Autism,” “Alzheimer’s disease,” and “other developmental disabilities” are not defined in the bill, which prompts extra concern for individuals who may lie somewhere on the autism spectrum but are capable of making decisions for themselves.

Further, there are no assurances that a future attorney general couldn’t mandate the sharing of data obtained by DOJ devices between federal agencies and law enforcement, therefore opening the window for unprecedented domestic surveillance.

Rep. Goodlatte made assurances that the program was voluntary and that no data would be collected. But the government simply does not have a good track record and history, to say the least, when it comes to privacy matters.

For parents or caretakers concerned about the safety and location of their loved ones with developmental disabilities, there are non-invasive, private ways to track the whereabouts under medical supervision — when necessary.

The slippery slope of Kevin and Avonte’s Law is frightening, as there is simply no need for the federal government to get involved. (For more from the author of “The GOP House Just Approved Tracking Devices for People with Disabilities” please click HERE)

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