Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague Senator Bennett to introduce an important and bipartisan piece of legislation that will help protect American's from identity and financial theft. As you may have heard in the news, in 2009 Heartland Payment Systems--a national company that processes payments for retailers and restaurants located in nearly all 50 states--was hacked, leaving possibly 100 million people at risk of identity fraud or financial theft. These types of scenarios happen more than we would like and have the potential to keep American's from getting a loan, a new bank account, or--in worst case scenarios--from even paying the monthly bills. This situation is simply unacceptable and this bill will help address these serious problems. Our bill requires entities such as financial institutions, retailers, and Federal agencies to safeguard sensitive information before it is compromised, investigate possible security breaches, and to notify customers when there is a substantial risk of identity theft or account fraud. For example, these new requirements would apply to retailers who take credit card information, data brokers who compile private information, and government agencies that possess nonpublic personal information. My colleague and I modeled our legislation after the data security and breach-response regime established under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, and subsequent regulations.…”