Dianne Feinstein: “I rise to reintroduce, along with Senator Judd Gregg, the Social Security Number Misuse Prevention Act. This is critical…”

“I rise to reintroduce, along with Senator Judd Gregg, the Social Security Number Misuse Prevention Act. This is critical legislation, especially in light of the increasing number of cases of identity theft. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission, FTC, this week announced that identity theft is the Nation's top consumer fraud complaint for the third consecutive year. Last year, this legislation was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Finance Committee was set to vote on it as well, but it got entangled in an unrelated, amendment. It is my hope that Congress will approve this legislation this year, so that we can begin to protect one of the most fundamental rights of all Americans. I believe all Americans should have the right to: control how their personal identifying information is used. Keep their Social Security number out of the public domain. Limit disclosure by public agencies of personal information; and I also believe that Americans have the right to expect that businesses and government agencies will protect your personal information held within their databases. Lately, however, these rights have been seriously compromised by thieves who are stealing American's identity's in record numbers. Just in the last year, identity theft cases have doubled nationwide. American consumers filed approximately 163,000 identity theft complaints with the FTC in 2002. Fully 43 percent of all the complaints the FTC receives are about identity theft.”