[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 146 (Monday, September 15, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8523-S8524]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  FORMER VICE PRESIDENT PROTECTION ACT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am pleased that the House of 
Representatives today passed the Former Vice President Protection Act, 
H.R. 5938--a bill to ensure that that former Vice Presidents and 
immediate family members receive Secret Service protection for 6 months 
after they leave office. I am especially pleased that this important 
legislation, which will now be sent to the President for signature, 
includes key provisions of the Identity Theft Enforcement and 
Restitution Act, a critical cyber crime bill I introduced last year and 
that has twice unanimously passed the Senate in this Congress. I hope 
that the President will promptly sign this measure into law.
  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

[[Page S8524]]

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 anticyber 
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 cybercriminals.
  The key anticyber 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 that involve computers located within the same State, 
the cybercrime 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. And, 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 added 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.
  I thank Senator Specter for his hard work on this legislation. I also 
thank Senators Biden and Hatch and the bipartisan coalition of Senators 
who have joined with us to ensure its passage. In addition, I thank 
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Conyers and Congressman Bobby Scott 
for their assistance in enacting this bill. I also thank Majority 
Leader Reid, House Majority Leader Hoyer and House Majority Whip 
Clyburn for their leadership in advancing this legislation. Lastly, I 
thank the many high tech, business and consumer organizations who have 
worked so hard to enact this legislation to better protect the privacy 
and security of American consumers and American businesses. I encourage 
the President to promptly sign this important criminal legislation into 
law.

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