Iowa Senator Tom Harkin says he’s co-sponsored legislation to offer some protection to the millions of veterans who had their personal information stolen from a Veterans Administration employee. Harkin says the bill would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide one year of credit monitoring to each person. Harkin says that would immediately let the person know of changes in their credit.
Harkin says the bill has a hefty price tag with an authorization of one-point-two-five-billion dollars to cover the cost of the program. Harkin says, “No question, this is a lot of money. Given the gravity of the security breach revealed on Monday, this is not an optional course of action, we owe it to our veterans.”
Congress is scheduled to take a break after today and Harkin says there’s a move on to get the legislation passed quickly. Harkin says he’s been told they’re “hotlining” the bill to see if there are any Republican or Democratic objections, and if not Harkin says they could pass it before they leave tonight.
In the meantime, Harkin says veterans need to do some extra monitoring of their credit card activity. Harkin says, “Veterans should be very careful about their credit card purchases, and how they’re using their credit cards. Examine their bills, very, very carefully. And just make sure that there’s nothing on those bills that they don’t absolutely know about.”
Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell has co-sponsored similar legislation in the House. Boswell says his personal information was among the information of the millions of veterans that was stolen.