Federal Data Users

From Punchbowl News: Tech: A Democratic plan on DOGE data

On Tuesday, Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) is calling for a future Democratic Congress to fix a half-century-old law in a bid to update the White House's access to information in the era of advanced technology.

"The Privacy Act was written for a world of file cabinets and mainframe computers, not one defined by cloud storage, data brokers, and AI," Trahan said in a statement accompanying her nearly 70-page report. "Americans should be able to trust that their personal information is handled responsibly by their government."

...

Studying up. Trahan spent the last 10 months gathering and digesting "dozens of responses from former government technology officials, watchdogs, good government groups, technology companies, privacy advocates, and individual citizens" on how to revamp the Privacy Act.

...

Trahan is particularly concerned with the green light that the current law gives to government officials seeking records about people if those bureaucrats "have a need for the record in the performance of their duties."

The report contends that, in practice, this need-to-know exemption and other provisions allow access to almost any data. Trahan's report also says the Privacy Act does too little to protect Americans whose data might surface in government searches that weren't designed to find personal information.

The proposal adds that, while the law allows too much dangerous data-sharing, it also hinders basic government functioning.

Punchbowl News		remove preview
Tech: A Democratic plan on DOGE data Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) is calling for a future Democratic Congress to fix a half-century-old law in a bid to update the W.H.'s access to information. View this on Punchbowl News >

------------------------------
Meghan Stuessy
Congressional Research Service
------------------------------

Thanks Meghan for sharing.

There's a lot in Trahan's report, but the idea of  "purpose-based privacy" stood out for me:

"With modernized definitions in place, Congress must embed in the Privacy Act a new privacy model that segments requirements by the relative harm and risk of each purpose. The Act's current approach, of homogenous requirements at the system-of-records-level, has resulted in limited privacy for individual Americans while hindering agencies-especially those who administer critical safety net programs-from processing data responsibly."

------------------------------
Mark Mather
Associate VP
PRB
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-17-2026 10:23 AM
From: Meghan Stuessy
Subject: Rep. Trahan releases report on DOGE, Privacy Act

From Punchbowl News: Tech: A Democratic plan on DOGE data

On Tuesday, Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) is calling for a future Democratic Congress to fix a half-century-old law in a bid to update the White House's access to information in the era of advanced technology.

"The Privacy Act was written for a world of file cabinets and mainframe computers, not one defined by cloud storage, data brokers, and AI," Trahan said in a statement accompanying her nearly 70-page report. "Americans should be able to trust that their personal information is handled responsibly by their government."

...

Studying up. Trahan spent the last 10 months gathering and digesting "dozens of responses from former government technology officials, watchdogs, good government groups, technology companies, privacy advocates, and individual citizens" on how to revamp the Privacy Act.

...

Trahan is particularly concerned with the green light that the current law gives to government officials seeking records about people if those bureaucrats "have a need for the record in the performance of their duties."

The report contends that, in practice, this need-to-know exemption and other provisions allow access to almost any data. Trahan's report also says the Privacy Act does too little to protect Americans whose data might surface in government searches that weren't designed to find personal information.

The proposal adds that, while the law allows too much dangerous data-sharing, it also hinders basic government functioning.

Punchbowl News		remove preview
Tech: A Democratic plan on DOGE data Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) is calling for a future Democratic Congress to fix a half-century-old law in a bid to update the W.H.'s access to information. View this on Punchbowl News >

------------------------------
Meghan Stuessy
Congressional Research Service
------------------------------