Conyers Fights for Veterans' Financial Security

Washington, DC - Last week, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., a veteran of the Korean War, cosponsored the "Veterans' Identity Protection Act of 2006" (H.R. 5455). This legislation will help veterans whose personal data was stolen from the home of a Veterans Administration ("VA") employee earlier this month.

Conyers stated, "This is an outrageous, unacceptable violation of the 836,950 brave men and women here in Michigan who have served our country. The revelation that the private and personal records of all of these veterans had been taken home by a VA employee and then stolen is appalling. Our veterans and their families deserve better.

It is not only wrong, it is a cover up. It was two weeks before the Administration informed the FBI and 19 days before the Administration informed the veterans whose personal information was stolen. Much damage to veterans may have been wreaked in that period of time.

Democrats are offering a bill to address this egregious breach of privacy, along with calling for a full investigation so that the people in charge are held accountable."

This legislation will protect veterans from identity theft by calling on the VA to:

• Provide veterans with one year of free credit monitoring -- to alert them of changes in their credit in order to stop the theft before it gets out of control.
• Provide veterans with one free credit report each year for two years after the end of credit monitoring, in addition to the free credit report available under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
• Authorize $1.25 billion in emergency funds for the first year of implementation.

"This is yet another step in fulfilling our pledge to leave no veteran behind. Democrats have introduced the New GI Bill of Rights to make sure that veterans and military retirees get the benefits they have earned and deserve."

Earlier this week, VA Secretary James Nicholson announced that sensitive data collected by the government for approximately 26.5 million veterans -- names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth as well as some disability ratings -- was stolen from the home of a VA official who had removed this data from the VA and taken it home. A number of law enforcement agencies are working to recover this data. While the FBI and the VA Inspector General's office are looking into the matter, Rep. Conyers is informing veterans and their families to take proactive steps to protect themselves from misuse of their personal information.

Veterans can visit www.firstgov.gov as well as www.va.gov/opa to get more information on this matter. The VA has set up a manned call center that veterans may call to get information about this situation and learn more about consumer identity protections: 1-800-FED INFO (333-4636), from 8 am to 9 pm (EDT), Monday-Saturday.

###5-30-2006###