Engineering Inc. - November/December 2019 - 36

In order to meet that requirement, the bills stipulated the
software would "automatically gather verification data of statefunded activity by tracking total keystroke and mouse event
frequency and taking a screenshot at least once every three
minutes."
Government contractors would pay for the software and be
responsible for storing all the data collected by the software for
seven years.
At the time of the legislative push, TransparentBusiness was
the only company selling the tracking software.
In every one of the states, the legislation related to
TransparentBusiness failed, due in large part to the efforts of
ACEC state Member Organizations. Working together under
the umbrella of the National Association
of Engineering Council Executives
(NAECE), they prevented most of the
bills from reaching legislature floors and
helped to defeat those that did.
"This was a perfect example of why
a firm should be a member of ACEC,"
says Jeanne McClure, executive director
of ACEC/Nebraska. "Had it not been
for NAECE, this was an under-the-radar
bomb that could have gone off."

"They took the lead," says Skoog. "In the end, we decided not
to testify because the state's opposition was so strong.
"The bill was dead by the end of the month," says Skoog.
However, TransparentBusiness' efforts to get the bill passed in
other states was just getting started.
ON ALL FRONTS

In late January, Scott Heidner, executive director of ACEC/
Kansas, saw an RFP that TransparentBusiness had sent to
several lobbyists in Topeka, Kansas.
According to the RFP, the selected lobbyist's primary task
would be "to persuade government entities to adopt automatic
and transparent verification of billable hours." This would
allow TransparentBusiness to get most
of the resulting business using its "first
mover's" advantage.
"Sure enough, a bill popped up in
both the House and Senate and was
immediately scheduled for hearings,"
says Heidner. "We came out of our
shoes, letting the committee leadership
know that we had a tremendous
problem with this legislation."
Heidner reached out to other groups
that would be affected by the legislation,
including architects, attorneys,
pharmacists, insurance brokers, and
state and local chambers of commerce.
"They were not aware of the bills and
reacted as you might think," he says.
"When the committee chairs heard how
much consternation there was in these
groups, they pulled the hearings."
One other part of the RFP caught
Heidner's attention: the claim that
TransparentBusiness was pushing the
legislation in almost every state. Concerned, he contacted
several ACEC state Member Organization executive directors
asking, "Have you seen anything like this in your states?"
They had not, but soon they would.
"It was a good thing I was looking for it," says McClure.
"Our legislative sessions start with 10 days of bill
introductions, and it was introduced on the ninth day." She
found it by typing "keystroke and mouse event" into the
Nebraska Legislature's online search engine.

TransparentBusiness
appears to have
switched
its strategy,
reportedly
amending its bills
to have a
$1 million
contract
threshold and to
solely target IT
contracts

OPENING SALVO

TransparentBusiness introduced its first
bill in Montana in early 2019.
"When I saw the bill, I will just say
I was disturbed by it," says Jay Skoog,
executive director of ACEC/Montana.
The bill posed significant privacy and
cybersecurity risks, tracking data that
would potentially include passwords,
proprietary information, trade secrets,
or personally sensitive information.
Additionally, there would be the logistics and cost of storing
all that data. Finally, there was the question of how the state
would possibly audit that data.
Skoog took the bill to a couple of state agencies. "They did
not like it either," he says.
Given that this was TransparentBusiness' first effort to get
the bill passed, the company sent a lobbyist from Washington,
D.C. to testify at the bill's committee hearing. On the other
side of the table was Montana's chief information officer.

"When the committee chairs heard how much
consternation there was in these groups, they
pulled the hearings."
SCOTT HEIDNER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
ACEC/KANSAS

ENGINEERING INC.

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019

Engineering Inc. - November/December 2019

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