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   Washingtons budget hawks want to decimate the federal workforce to shrink the deficit. It will have the opposite effect.
 There arent nearly enough counterterrorism experts to instruct all of Americas police. So we got these guys instead.
 Last year there wasn�t a single fatal airline accident in the developed world. So why is the U.S. health care system still accidently killing hundreds of thousands? The answer is a lack of transparency.
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March 27, 2006
By: CONGRESS AND CREDIT FREEZES....A reader emails to remind me of something that happened a couple of weeks but never made it into the blog: on March 16 the House Financial Services Committee approved the "Financial Data Protection Act of 2005" on a 48-16 vote. Nothing wrong with that, is there? We're all in favor of protecting data, after all. I hardly even need to finish this story, do I? The FDPA is sponsored by Ohio Republican Steve LaTourette, and the theory behind it is that instead of 50 different state laws on data protection we should have one nationwide law something that would be a great idea if FDPA actually did a good job of protecting data. Unfortunately, what it mostly does is bring broad smiles to the faces of credit industry lobbyists by enacting an industry-friendly federal law that does less to protect data than most state laws. As the Senate Democratic Caucus of California puts it:
I'll let others deconstruct the notification issues, but credit freezes are one of my hobbyhorses because they're the best known defense against identity theft. Basically, a credit freeze is a simple option that prevents lenders from reviewing your credit history without your permission. Since lenders won't issue credit without first seeing a credit report, this prevents ID thieves from opening fraudulent accounts without your knowledge. Why does the credit industry hate credit freezes? Because it puts an end to instant credit: when you apply for credit, it can't be approved until the credit agency notifies you and you tell them that it's a legitimate credit application. (That is, it's a credit application that you filled out, not someone else.) Unfortunately, the idea that some people would choose to accept this minor inconvenience in return for protection from identity theft terrifies them, which is why they want to limit the option only to people who have already been hit by identify theft. As Debra Bowen, the author of California's credit freeze law, says, this doesn't make sense:
Far from overruling state laws on credit freezes, Congress should be doing just the opposite: passing laws making credit freezes even easier and cheaper than they are now. The credit industry, despite their predictable howls of anguish, would undoubtedly adapt with procedures that allowed fast notification and near-instant credit, and of course consumers who didn't want even this modest level of inconvenience would be free to keep their credit reports as free and unprotected as they are now. But the credit industry doesn't want to bother themselves about identity theft since it's mostly consumers who pay the price anyway, and Congress is happy to oblige them. It's yet more evidence of Republican subservience to business interests even when it harms their own constituents. UPDATE: More here on the notification aspects of this bill. —Kevin Drum 3:00 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (55)
Comments
Kevin wrote: "But the credit industry doesn't want to bother themselves about identity theft since it's mostly consumers who pay the price anyway" It's too bad that we can't force the credit industry to pay much of the unnecessary costs caused by identity theft. The industry certainly contributes to the problem and if they had to pay their fair share of the costs, they'd have a financial incentive to fix the problem, wouldn't they? Posted by: Taobhan on March 27, 2006 at 3:17 PM | PERMALINKI count 32 Democrats and Bernie Sanders on the Committee on Financial Services out of 70 total members. With a 48-17 vote, quite a few Democrats voted for the bill. How can the Democrats continue to vote yes on such corporate giveaways and issue any press release or talking point that says they want to protect the little guy? And given the last several years of GOP control, why should any Democrat support any GOP-written legislation? Posted by: Meander on March 27, 2006 at 3:20 PM | PERMALINKThe vote was 48-16? Sounds like a few DINOs voted for it too. What was the breakdown of the vote by party? Posted by: Tom on March 27, 2006 at 3:21 PM | PERMALINKBut the credit industry doesn't want to bother themselves about identity theft since it's mostly consumers who pay the price anyway Which is a good thing because it means individuals who acted irresponsibly by allowing others to steal their identity pay for their mistakes. People who follow the rules and prevent others from stealing their identity should not be forced to pay for the mistakes of others who are breaking the rules. Posted by: Al on March 27, 2006 at 3:22 PM | PERMALINKI was about to say the same thing as Meander did....as much fun as it is to bash Republicans, it's quite clear, in both this case and others, that there are plenty of Democrats complicit in enacting bad legislation as well. Can someone list all the Democrats on said committee who voted for this travesty of a bill? Posted by: MattW on March 27, 2006 at 3:22 PM | PERMALINKIf lenders keep losing more and more money due to fradulent instant-credit applications, they might cut down on the issuance of instant credit without verification on their own, no legislation needed. After all, they end up bearing the financial losses, and at some point the losses may become too large to be disregarded. Posted by: Peter on March 27, 2006 at 3:23 PM | PERMALINKPrivacy IS our issue; we must run with this NOW. A few well-crafted ads on how the Republicans refuse to protect your credit privacy could be immensely helpful. Add to this the IRS proposed rule allowing marketing of an individual's tax information and we have a solid issue in November. Posted by: Barry on March 27, 2006 at 3:30 PM | PERMALINKIf you're in CA, here's how to get a credit freeze for Transunion, Experian and Equifax. You have to pay (!) to get a credit freeze. How messed up is that! Posted by: Urinated State of America on March 27, 2006 at 3:32 PM | PERMALINKWhy do I automatically begin to worry when I hear of an act with a name like The Financial Data Protection Act of 2005. It makes we want to check for my wallet. Kevin, you can just call the three agencies up and issue your own fraud alert. I do it every six months or so. Posted by: Tony Shifflett on March 27, 2006 at 3:35 PM | PERMALINKIt really bothers me that you can be so sensible about an issue like this, yet so obtuse on the war issue preceding it. There are so many issues like this -- executive pay, healthcare, etc. -- that makes so many of us want to vote for your side, and then you have to spoil it with some nonsense post about how poor widdie Saddam was abused by the evil Bush and Blair. Posted by: minion of rove on March 27, 2006 at 3:36 PM | PERMALINKAh, Credit Card companies! These are the same folks who'll send out tons of mail to get you on board with them, touting the ease of use, rewards plans, credit consolidation, etc. And then, when you get the card, another piece of mail arrives advising you to buy insurance against the fraudulent use of your card--insurance sold by the same folks who had you sign up for the card. The only thing these people don't outsource is their protection racket. Scoundrels. +++ Posted by: MJS on March 27, 2006 at 3:37 PM | PERMALINKminion of rove: If you want to vote for our side -- vote for our side. If you want your ass sucked for it first -- go hang out on Joe Lieberman's blog, and I'm sure you'll find some eager young thing to oblige your creepy fantasies :) Bob Posted by: rmck1 on March 27, 2006 at 3:40 PM | PERMALINK"then you have to spoil it with some nonsense post about how poor widdie Saddam was abused by the evil Bush and Blair." What the hell are you talking about? Can you read? Kevin never even hinted at this. He was talking about the abuse of American soldiers and American Tax Dollars (300 billion of them and rising). Saddam was of little consequence, being a two-bit, scared silly, dictator. Even though Executive pay, credit protection, and health care are big deals, blowing 300 billion and weakening our military so much that Iran feels like it can do whatever it wants is a bigger deal that you should be concerned with as well. I realize your pride dictates that you support this silly war, but think beyond your pride for a moment and consider the damage. It's nearly breathtaking. Posted by: kj on March 27, 2006 at 3:59 PM | PERMALINKWhich Dem is going to write up THE list of this kind of consumer / voter rip-off rackets set up by Republicans on behalf of big money interests? Make the list concise. Punchy. Pithy. Make it memorable with rhyme, or melody, or other mnemonic devices. Posted by: ferd on March 27, 2006 at 4:00 PM | PERMALINKahh, the party of personal responsibility strikes again! Posted by: northzax on March 27, 2006 at 4:10 PM | PERMALINKAll I can say is the top 1% are in big trouble,I hope they enjoyed there ill gotten gains. Posted by: Right minded on March 27, 2006 at 4:10 PM | PERMALINKIt all comes down to calculated negligence doesn't it? Posted by: Tim B. on March 27, 2006 at 4:15 PM | PERMALINK"We are property, and the human-farmers don't want us to know it." I haven't seen that list of Democrats yet, but I would bet it would contain some familiar names. Hasn't it dawned yet that a lot of the Democrats in the house don't want anybody to get between them and their friends in the credit industry. After the bankrutpcy law travesty it should be clear to everybody that when it comes to supporting legislation hostile to the American public most members of Congress are really Republicans under the skin. Posted by: Ron Byers on March 27, 2006 at 4:36 PM | PERMALINKReally scrapping the bottom of the barrel lately aren't we? Aren't there juicier stories like PlameGate, Fitzmas, NSAGate, KatrinaGate, Iraq Civil War, Abu Ghraib, Cindy Sheehan, etc... to talk about? Posted by: Freedom Fighter on March 27, 2006 at 4:46 PM | PERMALINKThis should be a major campaign issue in 2006, framed shortly and simply with the larger frame of special interest corruption and Republican sell-out, along with the very basic concerns most Americans have about their private information, especially their credit. Posted by: Jimm on March 27, 2006 at 4:49 PM | PERMALINKLooks like the credit freeze provisions got tacked on through Rep. Castle's "manager's amendment," which passed the committee "by voice vote" (http://financialservices.house.gov/News.asp?FormMode=release&ID=775). So Castle inserts this in quickly and then, cleverly, no one on the committee "thought" to record the vote so we could hold specific representatives accountable for this provision. Posted by: Concerned on March 27, 2006 at 4:52 PM | PERMALINKIt's pretty clear to me that identity theft, far from being a problem for lenders, is at worst a wash for them and often a net benefit. After all, if they can hand out free credit to anyone who digs up your SSN from the trash, and then pin the bills on you, they'll win enough times to make it worth their while. As a matter of curiosity, how would a group of citizens go about initiating a class action lawsuit to stop such unjust practices? It's this presumption of consent that gets me--the notion that just because they "pre-approve" me, I'm liable for what happens when a knucklehead with half a brain steals my mail. Anyone know what angry citizens can do? Posted by: Scarpy on March 27, 2006 at 4:57 PM | PERMALINKShorter "Freedom Fighter" [sic]: Uh ... I got nothin'. Posted by: Alek Hidell on March 27, 2006 at 4:59 PM | PERMALINK"Can someone list all the Democrats on said committee who voted for this travesty of a bill?" I just spend about an hour trying to find the answer to this question for you. I'm a reasonably-well-educated, Google-comfy fellow. And, nope, I can't find that information anywhere. I did find that 15 Democrats voted yes. I did find a quote from the spokesperson of the bill's sponsor (Steven LaTourette [R-OH]), saying, "The bill did pass in committee overwhelmingly on a bipartisan vote." I did even find a press release from the Committee itself, patting itself on the back for such good work performed: http://financialservices.house.gov/news.asp?FormMode=release&id=775 What I couldn't find, after an hour of looking, was a simple answer to the question: who voted yes, and who voted no? This makes me very, very, very angry. In what way is it democratic, that our representatives can vote to make it easier to engage in identity theft, while hiding their own voting identities from us, the voters? Ergh! Patrick Meighan I work in programming and database, and implementing a freeze is not much work for the credit companies in programming time. You add a boolean field to a table - fldFreeze - and check it to see whether an account is frozen. You'll have to update queries, stored procedures, some code, yada yada, but it's not that much work. There once was a man named ferd,who tried and tried to make things absurd.And when he got into a crunch he had to turn to rush.Rush said with 4 oxy's in his head.I dunno go ask Coultier. Posted by: Right minded on March 27, 2006 at 5:11 PM | PERMALINKKevin, Seems like all the liberal blogs can be classified in two categories that may be summarized in very simple sentences: 1.Bush sucks. 2. GOP sucks. Bush and GOP have done nothing to prove that they do not deserve such high praise. Posted by: lib on March 27, 2006 at 5:20 PM | PERMALINKHow do you Prove Identity theft if they used your ID? Catch 22 Posted by: Hamster Brain on March 27, 2006 at 5:22 PM | PERMALINKWOW quite a list you have going there Freedom,Your boys seem to be a wee bit on the preoccupied side of the law. Posted by: Right minded on March 27, 2006 at 5:25 PM | PERMALINKHow can the Democrats continue to vote yes on such corporate giveaways Poli= many Ergo POLITICS=the many bloodsuckers Posted by: Hamster Brain on March 27, 2006 at 5:27 PM | PERMALINKOh I miss the days when all the GOP had to worry about was Bill Clintons Penis.Which is Tatooed on every GOP shill there is. We call that Clenis wear by Monica. Posted by: Right minded on March 27, 2006 at 5:29 PM | PERMALINKIf everone would give up there Credit cards for Six months the Credit Companies would bend over backwards to fix the problem. Posted by: Right minded on March 27, 2006 at 5:34 PM | PERMALINKIf everone would give up there Credit cards for Six months the Credit Companies would bend over backwards to fix the problem. That's like suggesting that heroin dealers would stop selling bad quality smack if all the junkies stopped using it in protest. The treadmill is going to fast for that - how would many people buy groceries and pay bills without using credit cards? Posted by: floopmeister on March 27, 2006 at 5:39 PM | PERMALINKLive with in there means maybe,Get off this Borrow and spend policy Bush has everyone on.(exept me ,Credit card balance 0) Posted by: Right minded on March 27, 2006 at 5:50 PM | PERMALINKThis is why I don't use banks or "credit cards". I keep all my money with me in my house, under my bed in a coffee can. Posted by: 'ole Hickory Jim on March 27, 2006 at 5:53 PM | PERMALINKLife without credit is not so strange - it's the way the majority of the world lives. I mentioned this before, but the Chinese don't, in general, use credit cards at all. There's not as much social status in flashing a Platinum Mastercard in China - the Chinese pay cash and only cash. It's a good way to live, financially speaking. Posted by: floopmeister on March 27, 2006 at 6:04 PM | PERMALINKThank you for blogging this! I passed this law in California in 2001, after two years of negotiations that satisfied everyone but the car dealers. Political Animals from around the country: please let Congress know that it is working well here and has been copied in many other states, and that we NEED this protection from identity theft! Posted by: Senator Debra Bowen on March 27, 2006 at 6:15 PM | PERMALINKHelp! Who is this imposter? I'm the real Senator Debra Bowen! Posted by: The Real Senator Debra Bowen on March 27, 2006 at 6:56 PM | PERMALINKLife without credit? Then how would I live beyond my means? Posted by: kj on March 27, 2006 at 6:57 PM | PERMALINKBut wait! There's more! You get 6--that's right 6--months of... 630(g)(1) FREE FILE MONITORING.And for the generosity of such--and by doing nothing more than making such an offer to you--the "consumer reporter" is absolved... 630(g)(2) JOINT RULEMAKING FOR SAFE HARBOR.(emphasis addded; full text here) Posted by: has407 on March 27, 2006 at 8:11 PM | PERMALINK Shorter "Freedom Fighter" [sic]: Uh ... I got nothin'. Posted by: Alek Hidell Jeez, what about Al? Less than nothing. Posted by: Ace Franze on March 27, 2006 at 8:12 PM | PERMALINKReally scrapping the bottom of the barrel lately aren't we? Aren't there juicier stories like PlameGate, Fitzmas, NSAGate, KatrinaGate, Iraq Civil War, Abu Ghraib, Cindy Sheehan, etc... to talk about? "Scraping" not "scrapping". Anent Plamegate, Karl Rove is apparently singing like a fat, self-satisfied sociopath facing prison, according to recent reports. Posted by: Jeffrey Davis on March 27, 2006 at 8:36 PM | PERMALINKAl, Nobody's rising to your troll bait anymore. Too bad, bubba. Posted by: ljr on March 27, 2006 at 9:42 PM | PERMALINKI've been a California notary for a few years now. Probably half the notarizations I did until California passed its laws were on the many and varied forms people had to fill out to try to get their identification, credit, bank accounts, debt collectors, schools, and employers to believe they'd had their identity stolen and that the person who ruined their records wasn't them. If you value your time and think you're doing anything whatsoever worthwhile with your life -- you do not want to be spending time fixing these problems. If you think ruining someone is a handy tactic to have on the shelf -- go with the federal law and prevent the states from protecting their citizens from the central government and its nationally and internationally organized financial agencies. You've heard of 'externalizing costs' -- putting expenses off the budget, by dumping them where someone else has to deal with the mess? That's what's going on here too. You can spend your whole life cleaning up after big rich people. Many of us do. Posted by: me on March 27, 2006 at 11:24 PM | PERMALINKinternet poker Rules Anybody game for a Second American Revolution? Posted by: Thomas Paine on March 28, 2006 at 11:57 AM | PERMALINKExactly the kind of thing that, when Dianne Feinstein or Jane Harman retire or otherwise move on, makes Debra Bowen the perfect choice to fill the opening. Posted by: Robert Earle on March 28, 2006 at 2:50 PM | PERMALINKOK, pair up and each of you steal the other one's identity. Posted by: vidkun on March 28, 2006 at 4:47 PM | PERMALINKThe 14 co-sponsors of the bill include some of the "usual suspects": Rep Judy Biggert, [IL-13], Rep Michael N. Castle, [DE], Rep Paul E. Gillmor, [OH-5], Rep Katherine Harris, [FL-13], Rep Darlene Hooley, [OR-5], Rep Walter B. Jones, Jr. [NC-3], Rep Mark R. Kennedy, [MN-6], Rep Dennis Moore, [KS-3], Rep Robert W. Ney, [OH-18], Rep Stevan Pearce, [NM-2], Rep Deborah Pryce, [OH-15], Rep Rick Renzi, [AZ-1], Rep Christopher Shays, [CT-4], Rep Patrick Tiberi, J. [OH-12]. 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