Congress at Standstill on
Security Breach Legislation

Since 2005, Congress has introduced and debated at least 10 bills related to protecting consumers from security breaches and identity theft. However, it is unlikely that the Senate or House of Representatives will pass legislation this year. David Sohn, former staffer for Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and currently staff counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy and civil rights advocacy group, summarized the situation:

"It's certainly a popular and pro-consumer issue to tackle. It's difficult to see how Congress will reconcile all the bills."

With both the House and Senate in session a limited number of days through August, the election season heating up, and legislative priorities including budget, appropriations and immigrations bills on the calendar, data security legislation is not likely to move forward this session.

In a sign the issue will likely remain a priority in the next Congress, longtime privacy advocate Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) recently completed a hearing on the misuse of social security numbers. According to Stearns, "The government and private business realized that these [social security] numbers were unique identifiers and adopted them for their own use. Social Security numbers have legitimate other uses, and we want to look at their correct use as well as their misuse, especially in the area of identity theft."


In the States

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, security breach legislation has been introduced in at least 27 states in 2006. Legislation has been enacted in at least eight of those states - Colorado, Kansas, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Nebraska, Utah, and Wisconsin - and has been sent to the Governor for signing in Arizona. However, these bills do not affect Kids in the Know members due to the way each defines "personal information" as name plus social security number, driver's license number, or financial account number. In addition, the bills state that "personal information" does not include information available to the general public.

If the new Congress acts next year, a key issue will be how any legislation that is passed supersedes existing state legislation.

We will continue to monitor the legislation both in Congress and in the state legislatures and keep you informed on future relevant actions.