WHITE PLAINS, NY – Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (D-Westchester/Rockland) today called on the Republican Leadership in Congress to immediately put identity theft legislation on the Congressional agenda to protect American consumers.  She also sent a letter to President Bush asking him to set identity protection standards and set aside funds to protect personal information from being stolen from government agencies.

“Identity theft is an increasing problem throughout the country, and in 2005 New York State had the third highest number of identity theft victims in the nation,” stated Lowey.  “What’s worse is that the federal government has compromised the personal data of millions of Americans in recent months.  Congress must quickly adopt legislation to protect consumers, and the Administration must act immediately to better protect Americans’ personal information.”

On May 10, 2006, President Bush signed an Executive Order creating an Identity Theft Task Force to review the activities of the executive branch and to draft a strategic plan to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the government’s identity theft awareness, prevention, detection, and prosecution activities.  Since the Executive Order was signed, data breaches at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Internal Revenue Service, Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, U.S. Navy, Department of Transportation, and the Department of Education have affected tens of millions of Americans.

“The President’s Identity Theft Task Force must quickly adopt a workable strategy for all federal agencies so that Americans’ personal and sensitive data is not further compromised,” stated Lowey.  “I urge the Administration to require that all sensitive information be encrypted and kept in a secure environment and to provide each agency with the resources to prevent data breaches.  I will continue fighting to ensure that the government takes responsibility for recent breaches that could potentially affect the lives of millions of hard-working Americans including many men and women who have served in our armed forces.”

The House Financial Services and Energy and Commerce Committees and the Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees have considered legislation on data security.  Congresswoman Lowey called on the Republican Leadership to bring a data security bill to the floor that adopts the following key items:

• Require consumers to be notified if there is a reasonable risk that a security breach could lead to identity theft;
• Allow consumers to access files generated by information brokers to flag, change, or delete any incorrect data;
• Fine companies for pretexting, the practice of obtaining information under false pretenses; and
• Allow any consumer to place a freeze on his or her credit reports to prevent identity theft.

Congresswoman Lowey is a cosponsor of the “Veterans’ Identity Protection Act of 2006” (H.R. 5455), legislation aimed at helping veterans whose personal data was stolen earlier this year.  This legislation would protect veterans from identity theft by requiring the VA to provide them with one year of free credit monitoring to alert them of changes in their credit and stop theft before it gets out of control.  The bill would also provide veterans with one free credit report each year for two years after the end of credit monitoring in addition to the free credit report available under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and authorize $1.25 billion in emergency funds for the first year of implementation.