Hon. Michael G. Oxley: “the answer is no. The Member from Massachusetts is correct. The identity theft protections in this bill amend section…”

“the answer is no. The Member from Massachusetts is correct. The identity theft protections in this bill amend section 605 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The uniform standard for section 605 is contained in section 624(b)(1)(e) which states that, ``No requirement or prohibition may be imposed under the laws of any State with respect to any subject matter regulated under section 605.'' The section goes on to describe section 605 saying that it relates to information contained in consumer reports, and now to identity theft prevention. That means that 605 is the section for identity theft protections, but the uniform standard requirement is still limited to the subject matters that our provisions actually address such as investigating address changes, fraud alerts, truncating credit card account numbers, blocking bad credit information, establishing red flag guidelines for identity theft prevention, and reconciling address changes. State identity theft laws that address different issues such as limiting Social Security number use or criminal penalties on identity theft perpetrators are not preempted.”