[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 129 (Thursday, July 31, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7885-S7886]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              FORMER VICE PRESIDENT PROTECTION ACT OF 2008

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am pleased that, last night, the Senate 
unanimously passed the Former Vice President Protection Act, H.R. 5938, 
a bill to ensure that former Vice Presidents and their immediate family 
receive Secret Service protection for 6 months after they leave office. 
I am especially pleased that this important legislation includes key 
provisions of the Leahy-Specter Identity Theft Enforcement and 
Restitution Act, a critical cyber crime bill that unanimously passed 
the Senate last November. I urge the House of Representatives to 
promptly take up and enact this important criminal legislation.
  Although the Secret Service has provided protection to former Vice 
Presidents over the last 30 years, through a variety of temporary 
grants of authority, this legislation will provide clear authority for 
the Secret Service to provide such protection for the first time. The 
men and women of the Secret Service perform the very difficult job of 
protecting our current and former leaders exceptionally well. I am 
pleased that this legislation will help the Secret Service to carry out 
this important mission.
  This bipartisan legislation also includes important cyber crime 
provisions portions of the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution 
Act to protect the privacy rights of all Americans. The anti-cyber 
crime provisions in this bill are long overdue. A recent survey by the 
Federal Trade Commission found that that more than 8 million Americans 
fell victim to identity theft in 2005. In addition, a new report by the 
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development encourages 
democratic governments around the world to more aggressively fight 
identity theft by enacting stronger cyber crime laws and stiffening the 
penalties to deter potential cyber-criminals.
  The key anti-cyber crime provisions that are included in this 
legislation will close existing gaps in our criminal law to keep up 
with the cunning and ingenuity of today's identity thieves. First, to 
better protect American consumers, the legislation provides the victims 
of identity theft with the ability to seek restitution in Federal court 
for the loss of time and money spent restoring their credit and 
remedying the harms of identity theft, so that identity theft victims 
can be made whole.
  Second, to address the increasing number of computer hacking crimes

[[Page S7886]]

that involve computers located within the same State, the cyber-crime 
amendment eliminates the jurisdictional requirement that a computer's 
information must be stolen through an interstate or foreign 
communication in order to federally prosecute this crime.
  Third, this legislation also addresses the growing problem of the 
malicious use of spyware to steal sensitive personal information, by 
eliminating the requirement that the loss resulting from the damage to 
a victim's computer must exceed $5,000 in order to federally prosecute 
the offense. The bill carefully balances this necessary change with the 
legitimate need to protect innocent actors from frivolous prosecutions 
and clarifies that the elimination of the $5,000 threshold applies only 
to criminal cases.
  In addition, the amendment addresses the increasing number of cyber 
attacks on multiple computers by making it a felony to employ spyware 
or keyloggers to damage 10 or more computers, regardless of the 
aggregate amount of damage caused. By making this crime a felony, the 
amendment ensures that the most egregious identity thieves will not 
escape with minimal punishment under Federal cyber-crime laws. The 
legislation also strengthens the protections for American businesses, 
which are more and more becoming the focus of identity thieves, by 
adding two new causes of action under the cyber-extortion statute--
threatening to obtain or release information from a protected computer 
and demanding money in relation to a protected computer--so that this 
bad conduct can be federally prosecuted.
  Lastly, the legislation adds the remedy of civil and criminal 
forfeiture to the arsenal of tools to combat cyber crime, and our 
amendment directs the U.S. Sentencing Commission to review its 
guidelines for identity theft and cyber crime offenses.
  Senator Specter and I have worked closely with the Department of 
Justice and the Secret Service in crafting these updates to our cyber-
crime laws, and the legislation we add as an amendment to the Former 
Vice President Protection Act has the strong support of these Federal 
agencies and the support of a broad coalition of business, high-tech 
and consumer groups. The bill as amended to include these critical 
cyber-crime provisions is a good, bipartisan bill that will help to 
better protect our Nation's leaders and to better protect all Americans 
from the growing threat of identity theft and other cyber crimes.
  Again, I thank the bipartisan coalition of Senators who have joined 
Senator Specter and me in supporting this important bill. I urge the 
House of Representatives to promptly enact this important criminal 
legislation.

                          ____________________