[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2970 Introduced in Senate (IS)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2970

  To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide free credit 
 monitoring and credit reports for veterans and others affected by the 
   theft of veterans' personal data, to ensure that such persons are 
     appropriately notified of such thefts, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 23, 2006

   Mr. Kerry introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
             referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide free credit 
 monitoring and credit reports for veterans and others affected by the 
   theft of veterans' personal data, to ensure that such persons are 
     appropriately notified of such thefts, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Veterans Identity Protection Act of 
2006''.

SEC. 2. CERTIFICATION BY SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (in this Act referred to 
as the ``Secretary'') shall certify in writing to Congress that any 
individual whose personal information is compromised due to lax data 
security precautions at the Department of Veterans Affairs has been 
appropriately notified in writing of such compromise.
    (b) Applicability.--The certification required by subsection (a) 
shall apply with respect to any compromise of personal information at 
the Department of Veterans Affairs occurring before or after the date 
of enactment of this Act, including with respect to the theft of data 
first publicly reported on May 22, 2006.

SEC. 3. FREE SERVICES TO VICTIMS OF DATA SECURITY BREACHES.

    The Secretary shall provide, free of charge, to each individual 
whose personal information is (or was before the date of enactment of 
this Act) compromised due to lax data security precautions at the 
Department of Veterans Affairs--
            (1) credit monitoring services, during the 1-year period 
        beginning on the date of enactment of this Act; and
            (2) a copy of the credit report (as defined in section 603 
        of the Fair Credit Reporting Act) of the affected individual 
        once annually during the 2-year period beginning on the date on 
        which the credit monitoring services required by paragraph (1) 
        terminate, which shall be in addition to any other credit 
        report provided to the individual under otherwise applicable 
        law, free of charge or otherwise.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry 
out this Act, $1,250,000,000.
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