(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – During a meeting with victims of identity theft on Wednesday, President Bush issued an Executive Order instructing federal agencies to work together to develop strong identity theft regulations. Last July, Congressman Dennis Moore (Third District-KS) and fellow members of the House Financial Services Committee joined to introduce legislation, the Financial Data Protection Act, which would protect consumer information and create a uniform national standard for companies to secure customers’ data.

“I’m glad the Administration is supporting our efforts,” Moore said. “We should be doing all we can to protect consumers from the devastating effects of identity theft. Protecting data and consumers is not a partisan issue, and the process of implementing tough data security standards should be bipartisan.”

Moore’s bill focuses on protecting personal information in three ways: first, the legislation would more clearly define a harmful breach of information. Once that breach has been determined, the bill would create a national uniform process by which a company would notify its customers, appropriate law enforcement agencies, its functional regulator, and critical third-party companies. Third, the bill would require companies that are responsible for data breaches that could lead to identity theft to offer free credit file monitoring to those customers whose information has been compromised.

“It is time for us to act to protect consumers from data breaches and create a uniform national standard and a level of security for consumers and national businesses,” Moore said. “This bill would require companies to notify consumers when their sensitive personal information has been accessed in a way that could lead to identity theft. This is information consumers have a right to know.”

As a member of the Financial Services Committee, Moore has made data security a priority. Previously, Moore drafted bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the expiring provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and protect consumers from identity theft. The bill was signed into law on December 4, 2003.