The FMC has issued three notices that either reissue ocean transportation intermediary (OTI) licenses, revoke OTI licenses, or list those applying for OTI licenses, as follows:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted separate application instructions, and is requiring that all application information be submitted online, for those seeking to participate in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT). Separate application instructions have been posted for the following groups:

In the July 6, 2005 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin, CBP issued a notice containing guidelines with the following title, which are effective July 6, 2005:

The Journal of Commerce reports that the American Trucking Association is warning that there is already a shortage of 20,000 drivers in long-haul trucking that could increase to 111,000 by 2014 if current trends continue. The article notes that the shortage is worsened by security and safety measures established during the last few years. (JoC, dated 06/27/05, www.joc.com.)

In the July 6, 2005 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin, CBP issued a notice containing guidelines with the following title, which are effective July 6, 2005:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a notice announcing that the China safeguard quotas on cats 338/339 and 352/652 filled on July 5, 2005 at 8:30 a.m. According to CBP, the proration amounts for entries presented at the fill moment are as follows:

In a statement containing his June 9, 2005 oral testimony before the House Government Reform Committee, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff answered a question on the use of third-party, certified auditors to improve container security/inspection, by stating that DHS is starting to talk about how it can tap into that expertise, so DHS doesn't have to own everything itself. Secretary Chertoff added that DHS wants to set the baseline, and does not necessarily want to operate it all as a government operation. (DHS statement, dated 06/09/05, available at http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4536 )

Consumers need stronger federal protection against improper collection and sale of personal data and fast notice when sensitive data has been put at risk, the House Homeland Security Committee’s Democratic staff said. The report urged Congress to: (1) Regulate data brokers by extending the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to data brokers like ChoicePoint and LexisNexis, requiring they hew to the same data-sharing standards and consumer protections as consumer reporting agencies. (2) Set data security standards imposing on data brokers and credit reporting agencies obligations similar to those the Gramm- Leach-Bliley Act places on regulated financial institutions. (3) Mandate uniform notification methods for data brokers, consumer reporting agencies and financial entities to use in notifying consumers after a breach in any data system in which an unauthorized party is likely to misuse sensitive data. (4) Require retailers to assume more responsibility for guarding customer data by stipulating any business that routinely collects and maintains customer credit card, check or other payment data notify customers or their financial institutions in instances of data breach. The report called data breaches and ID theft especially troublesome because they show how easily terrorists could adopt false identities to sneak into the U.S. or finance operations. And criminals use off-the-shelf technology to make counterfeit IDs that are hard to detect. The report was prepared for Democratic Reps. Bean (Ill.), Thompson (Miss.) and Markey (Mass.).

Consumers should be able to opt out of the databases held by consumer e-mail address list brokers, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said. A system letting consumers tell the 100 or so major list brokers they don’t want to get messages is more efficient than forcing consumers to tell every spammer the same thing, the system created by the CAN-SPAM act, said EPIC in comments to the FTC on CAN-SPAM rulemaking. List brokers collect e-mail address lists and sell them to companies who use them for mass e-mails. The FTC, EPIC said, can pursue list brokers, although they don’t fall under the purview of CAN-SPAM, by: (1) Using the FTC’s deception authority to act against firms claiming to give consumer e-mail lists only to “trusted partners” but instead making lists available to anyone; (2) Using its unfairness authority, since consumers can’t prevent their data from traffickers and the benefits list brokers provide are outweighed by the harm they cause; (3) Establishing an opt-out option by rulemaking and (4) Seeking authority from Congress to go after the list brokers. The comments likened EPIC’s proposed system to the FTC’s Do-Not-Call Registry, where customers place their names in a central database that bars telemarketers from calling them. While the 2 methods don’t function exactly the same way, EPIC said, both “strike at the root of the problem, rather than plucking at the leaves.”

A data broker snarled in a high-profile breach earlier this year has won a 5-year Internal Revenue Service (IRS) contract. ChoicePoint said Mon. the $20 million deal gives the IRS access to its custom data solutions. The award is for batch processing, which involves automated delivery and processing of data files, cutting the need for human intervention and enabling clients to generate relevant data on large populations in a timely fashion, ChoicePoint said. More than 25 federal agencies use ChoicePoint batch solutions to support their daily activities. The company in Feb. revealed the possible disclosure of data on more than 100,000 individuals in a breach, after which thieves defrauded numerous victims. Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Democrat Leahy (Vt.) called the deal “especially galling right now to be rewarding firms that have been so careless with the public’s confidential information.” ChoicePoint’s recent breach was scrutinized in recent Judiciary Committee hearings Leahy requested. “The dust has not yet settled and the investigations are incomplete on ChoicePoint’s lax security practices,” he said. “We should at least take a pause before rewarding such missteps with even more government contracts.” The senator added that Congress needs to study these contracts and the adequacy of their provisions to protect security and privacy and their penalties for failures. Leahy said the contract highlights the need for the legislation he and Chmn. Specter (R-Pa.) have drafted. The bill would place privacy and security front and center in evaluating whether data brokers can be trusted with govt. contracts that involve sensitive information.