Norton, Cardin Will Introduce Bill Providing Free Lifetime Identity Theft Protection Coverage Following OPM’s Announcement that 22 Million Were Impacted by Data Breaches

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In light of the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) announcement today that a second data breach on OPM databases has affected more than 21.5 million federal employees and retirees, five times more than the 4.2 million individuals reported in the first data breach, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a senior member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (OGR), announced she will introduce legislation with Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) to provide free lifetime identity theft protection coverage to federal employees and retirees whose personnel data has been compromised. Her bill would provide free lifetime identity theft protection coverage that includes identity theft insurance for losses up to $5 million. In today's announcement, OPM said that the 21.5 million individuals whose background check records were compromised would receive only three years of credit monitoring and identity theft protection services and $1 million in loss coverage, while the other 4.2 million individuals whose personnel records were compromised would receive 18 months of credit monitoring and $1 million in loss coverage. Norton said that OPM's proposed protection is not even in the ballpark of adequate protection, given the wide scope of the data breach.

"A grand total of close to 22 million federal employees and retirees who have been thrust into uncertainty about the security of their personal data will get no peace of mind without the lifetime identity theft protection provided by the bill Senator Cardin and I will be introducing," Norton said. "OPM's proposed protection would not protect workers and retirees if hackers waited a couple of years in the future before exploiting the stolen identities. The scope of the breach is bad enough; our lifetime protection would at least ease some of the anguish."

Last week, Norton questioned OPM Director Katherine Archuleta at an OGR hearing on whether she would be willing to extend the length of the free, 18-month credit monitoring being offered to current and former federal employees.