FEPA Passes U.S. House By Voice Vote

Photo credit: UpstateNYer (CC-By-SA 3.0)

The Foundations of Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (FEPA) (H.R. 4174) passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a voice vote on Wednesday afternoon after House rules were suspended in order to pass the bill. The bill was sponsored by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI).

This is typically done when a bill is considered “non-controversial.”

That isn’t the case with this bill. Two-thirds of the members present must vote in favor. The debate is limited to 40 minutes, and no amendments can be added.

Since it was a voice vote there was no roll call and we don’t know how each Representative voted.

No one spoke in opposition to the bill. You can listen to the “debate” below, as audio was captured by Cheri Kiesecker:

There is a companion bill in the Senate (S. 2046) sponsored by U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA).

Emmett McGroarty, a senior fellow with American Principles Project, made the following statement before the bill’s passage in the House.

Pressured by powerful lobbyists in Washington, Congress is about to take the first steps toward allowing massive data-mining by ‘researchers’ in the name of ‘transparency’ and ‘evidence.’ This will inevitably result in intrusive dossiers on citizens that will vastly expand the power of the already unaccountable administrative state. Citizens have the right to know that the personal data they turn over to the federal government stays with the agency to which it was submitted, and is not shared with other agencies for other purposes. Trampling on individual rights in this manner is bad enough; doing so without even fair hearing and debate is simply unconscionable. Congress must defeat this bill and protect individual freedom. If Congress refuses to do so, President Trump should veto this bill.

See and share this one-pager on the bill about why student privacy advocates have grave concerns about this bill and don’t find it “non-controversial” in the least.