FAIRFAX, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging opposition to H.R. 4919, a bill that would allow the Attorney General to determine “which types of tracking devices can be used” on humans:
“It is almost too absurd to believe that it is true, but the House Judiciary Committee is considering H.R. 4919 that would allow for the Attorney General to authorize tracking chips to be inserted involuntarily into people who are incapacitated with Alzheimer’s and other fatal dementias. That is not the least restrictive means of tracking patients, of course, when a simple GPS tracking bracelet for example might do the trick, if a doctor thought one would be helpful for a specific patient.
“In this case, Congress would be granting the Attorney General the power to regulate when human chips are used. But if this is about patient needs, why is this under the Department of Justice and not under the Department Health and Human Services? That alone makes the program suspicious. But the real question is why the government would have any role whatsoever in regulating the circumstances under which tracking devices are to be used on a mandatory basis, when such a system could be established by the private sector, and only ever used after private consultations between doctors, patients and patients’ families, when it is appropriate.
“If Congress has learned nothing else from Obama’s pen and phone rule over the past administration, they should have learned not to pass legislation giving the executive branch open-ended authority in such an area. This Congress needs to pass a short term continuing resolution and fade gracefully into the night, doing nothing else. It’s time to let the Obama administration end, not grant a few more Orwellian powers on the way out the door.”
