(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Congressman Dennis Moore (Third District-KS) joined fellow members of the House Financial Services Committee today to introduce legislation that would protect consumer information and create a uniform national standard for companies to secure customers’ data.

“It is time for Congress to act to protect consumers from data breaches and create a uniform national standard to create a level of certainty 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.”

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.

“Congress should be doing all we can to protect consumers from the devastating effects of identity theft,” Moore said. “Protecting data and consumers is not a partisan issue, and the process of drafting and passing data security legislation should be bipartisan.”

The introduction of the bill was announced today at a news conference in Washington, D.C. Moore and other members of the Financial Services Committee spoke, including Rep. Deborah Pryce (Republican -- OH), Rep. Steve LaTourette (Republican – OH), Rep. Mike Castle (Republican – DE) and Rep. Darlene Hooley (Democrat -- OR).

As a member of the Financial Services Committee, Moore has made data security a priority. Today the committee held its third hearing of the year focused specifically on data security breaches. In each hearing, witnesses before the committee have repeatedly testified in support of a uniform national standard for data breach notification. On Wednesday, during his semi-annual report on the economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan voiced his support of a national standard for protecting consumer information.

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.