Adam Schiff: “on Tuesday night I took an amendment to the Rules Committee asking the committee to permit this body to consider…”

“on Tuesday night I took an amendment to the Rules Committee asking the committee to permit this body to consider allowing each Member the opportunity to approve that amendment or reject it. The Republican majority on the Rules Committee, however, rejected giving Members that opportunity. My amendment would have simply provided that if more than one half of the creditor claims against you in bankruptcy are the result of identity theft, you should not be forced out of the protections of chapter 7. It was similar to an amendment offered by Senator Nelson of Florida, but was even narrower than that amendment. Mr. Speaker, a few years ago, the manager of the identity theft at the FTC commented on how identity theft was becoming rampant in this country, that it wreaks havoc on the credit of the victim and can even force them into bankruptcy. Since then, the problem has grown even worse, and an estimated 27.3 million Americans have fallen victim to identity theft in the last 5 years. We have all heard of recent breaches of massive databases holding personal information. On Monday, the parent company of the Lexis-Nexis reported that 310,000 people, nearly 10 times more than the original estimate reported last month, may have had their personal information stolen, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and driver's license numbers. And this is not an isolated incident.…”