To prohibit the Secretary of Homeland Security from obligating or expending funds for the National Applications Office of the Department of Homeland Security.
Key claim: HR2703 would prohibit DHS from spending any funds on the National Applications Office or any office processing requests for classified satellite imagery for civil, homeland security, or law enforcement purposes.
Abstract
(HR2703 · 111th Congress) Prohibits the Secretary of Homeland Security from obligating or expending funds for the National Applications Office of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or for any DHS office tasked to process requests for classified satellite information for civil, homeland security, or law enforcement purposes. Latest action (2009-06-17): Referred to the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment.
Why this matters
Domestic use of classified satellite imagery by civilian and law enforcement agencies raises core civil-liberties questions about Fourth Amendment protections, transparency, and the traditional posse comitatus separation between military intelligence capabilities and domestic policing. HR2703 illustrates Congress’s use of the appropriations power — rather than substantive statutory limits — to constrain a specific surveillance program, a recurring tool in oversight of executive-branch intelligence activities affecting Americans.