July 21, 2005

Pryce Introduces Legislation to Help Stop
Identity Theft, Protect Consumer Data  

WASHINGTON , DC – Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade and Technology, today introduced legislation aimed at protecting consumer information and creating federal standards by which companies would secure their customers’ data. The bill is one of two data security bills introduced on the House floor today. Both bills will be referred to the Financial Services Committee for consideration.  It is the hope of Congresswoman Pryce that the efforts of Committee members can be combined to create one focused bill.

“This is a growing problem that affects all Americans and needs to be addressed.  The provisions of this bill provide clear national notification standards to safeguard consumers and encourage companies to improve encryption of personal information.  We heard from Chairman Greenspan this week that we need to decide how much risk, loss, and destruction we are willing to bear.  The answer should be clear – without action, consumer data will continue to be compromised and companies will not know how best to respond when a breach occurs.”

Pryce’s bill focuses on the importance of protecting personal information in three ways: first, the legislation would more clearly define what a harmful breach of information. Once that breach has been determined, the bill creates a national uniform process by which a company would notify its customers. Third, the bill would update security laws to include third-party companies that collect data and require those companies to voluntarily monitor the credit reports of those customers whose information has been compromised with the goal of preventing identity theft.

Congresswoman Pryce has made data security a vital issue since returning to the Financial Services Committee at the beginning of the 109th Congress. Today the Committee held its third hearing of the year focused specifically on data security breaches. In each hearing, witnesses before the committee have repeatedly testified in support of a uniform national standard for data breach notification.  On Wednesday, during his semi-annual report on the economy, Rep. Pryce questioned Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan about her concerns that data security breaches may be eroding consumer confidence in our payment systems. Greenspan affirmed the Congresswoman’s concerns and voiced his support of a national standard for protecting consumer information.