A conference committee made up of U.S. Senate and House negotiators has approved an amendment to a government spending bill that would limit the Department of Defense’s ability to use data-mining techniques to check up on U.S. citizens. This week, the conference committee to the 2003 “omnibus” spending bill approved an amendment cutting spending for the Defense Advanced Research Agency’s Total Information Awareness (TIA) project until a detailed report on the project is delivered to Congress. The amendment, offered by Senators Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, and Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, now has to go back to both the House and Senate for final approval, along with the rest of the spending bill, House Resolution 2. To become law, President George W. Bush would have to sign the bill. The Wyden amendment was not included in the House version of House Resolution 2. Full Story