[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 44 (Thursday, April 14, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H1972]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 PROTECTING AMERICANS AGAINST ID THEFT

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, another major security breach involving the 
personal ID theft of 180,000 GM and MasterCard credit card holders 
should wake up Congress to deliver tough national standards for 
protecting Americans against ID theft. But this recent outbreak of 
180,000 GM and MasterCard credit holders' ID is on the heels of Choice 
Point, Bank of America and Lexus-Nexus and shows there are too many 
fraud artists posing as individual businesses and too many individual 
consumers whose identity is now being stolen and used against them.
  According to the Privacy Rights Center, up to 10 million Americans 
are victims of ID theft each year. They have a right to be notified 
when their most sensitive health data is stolen.
  In response to this problem, there have been bipartisan solutions 
offered to address it. The gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Bean), the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez), the gentlewoman from New York 
(Ms. Slaughter), and I have introduced the Notification of Risk to 
Personal Data Act as one piece of legislation. Our legislation requires 
consumers to be immediately notified when their personal data has been 
stolen or acquired by an unauthorized person and imposes tough new 
penalties on violators.
  Mr. Speaker, Americans want, need, and rightfully expect Congress to 
protect them from the prying eyes of identity thieves and give them 
back control of their Social Security numbers and personal health 
information.

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