WASHINGTON — House Republican leadership plans to bring an autism bill directly to the House floor this week from the Judiciary Committee that directs the federal government to assist state and local agencies to use “tracking technology” to find dementia patients and developmentally-disabled children.
The source added that there will be no regular order with the process of the bill.
The bill, H.R. 4919, was previously brought to committee for a markup last week but the markup was delayed as a result of members who became skittish over the contents of the bill relating to privacy protections.
The legislation instructs the U.S. attorney general to award grants to law enforcement or state and local public safety agencies so that those agencies can create, establish and operate “locative tracking technology programs.”
The initiative would be directed at finding “individuals with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, or children with developmental disabilities, such as autism, who have wandered from safe environments.”
Additionally, the bill allows the attorney general to determine “the criteria used to determine which individuals would benefit from the use of a tracking device; who should have direct access to the tracking system; and which types of tracking devices can be used in compliance with the standards and best practices.”
Americans for Limited Government Rick Manning cautioned in a press release last Tuesday that the bill, “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.”
He added, “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.”