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Description

A bill to prevent and mitigate identity theft, to ensure privacy, to provide notice of security breaches, and to enhance criminal penalties, law enforcement assistance, and other protections against security breaches, fraudulent access, and misuse of personally identifiable information.

SB 1789 applies specifically to personally identifiable information in electronic or digital form on 10,000 or more United States persons. The bill would not only require database security breach notifications, it would also mandate that any organization in interstate commerce implement a comprehensive personal data privacy and security program that includes administrative, technical and physical safeguards. The Federal Trade Commission would be given rule-making authority to identify such safeguards in more detail.

Below is a list of states, with bill numbers, that are currently considering legislation requiring that individuals residing in the state be notified when their personal identification information may be adversely affected by a breach of database security.

The Genealogical Society of Utah sent Charles Rothwell, Director for Vital Records at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) a recommendation for the regulations that would be governed by HHS. The current recommendation will allow non-certified copies to be made available and/or retained.

Kathleen Roe, Immediate past-president of the Council of State Archivists, has reported that the President has signed off on the funding for National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the 2006 fiscal year at a level of $5.5 million for grants and $2 million for program administration. In a message sent by Kathleen on 3 January 2006, she wrote “We heard repeatedly that members of the House and Senate were well aware of the interest of their constituents because of the contact from individuals and organizations--they heard the message loud and clear, and responded with the restoration of funding during a time when that was very difficult to accomplish.”

President Bush signed into law the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Act of 2004. The bill did not have the wording suggested by the FGS/NGS Records Preservation and Access Committee.

One of the provisions that did pass reads as follows: "ISSUANCE TO FAMILY MEMBERS- Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the States, shall establish minimum standards for issuance of a birth certificate to specific family members, their authorized representatives, and others who demonstrate that the certificate is needed for the protection of the requestor's personal or property rights."

H.R. 10- “Hope Fades for Intelligence Bill,” The Washington Post. by Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, October 28, 2004; page A02. Full text of the article can be found at 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3595-2004Oct27.html

H.R. 10-“Senators Offer Intelligence Plan,” The Washington Post. by Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writer, Monday, October 25, 2004; page A03. Full text of the article can be found at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59784-2004Oct24.html?sub=AR

H.R. 10 - 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act seeks to limit access to vital records in order to protect each of us from identity theft. The way the bill is worded, it could also limit our access to this information for genealogical purposes. The RPAC is recommending that the wording in the bill be adjusted to insert the following language as a new subsection 890A(b)(2)(E) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (see Title 6, Section 606(a) of S.2774):

“shall not require a State to change its law or practice with respect to public access to (i) non-certified copies of birth certificates or to (ii) birth certificates or birth records once a period of 100 years has elapsed from the date of creation of the certificate or record.”

Text of the bill can be found at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.10:

On 8 October 2003, Rep. Coble (R-NC) introduced H.R. 3261, The Database of Collections of Information Misappropriation Act of 2003. H.R. 3261 would protect those that create and maintain databases from unauthorized use of the information in the databases. The bill seeks protection for facts within databases which are not eligible for copyright protection under current law. Opposition to the bill contends that this legislation will make it more difficult and costly for people to access public information.