Statement of Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member
Committee on Energy and Commerce

SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS HEARING ON “INTERNET DATA BROKERS AND PRETEXTING:
WHO HAS ACCESS TO YOUR PRIVATE RECORDS?”

June 21, 2006

Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing today. Illegally obtaining or selling telephone records or any other sensitive personal information poses a serious threat to Americans. It can lead to identity theft, harm to victims of domestic violence and stalking, and harm to law enforcement and homeland security personnel, especially those operating under cover. This is a crime and we need to put a stop to it.

And this Committee did just that ... or so we thought.

On March 8, 2006, the Committee on Energy and Commerce unanimously reported H.R. 4943, the “Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act”. On May 2, 2006, this bill was scheduled for consideration on the Floor of the House of Representatives. Yet, with no notice or explanation, H.R. 4943 mysteriously disappeared from the suspension calendar and it has not been seen or heard from since. Members of this Committee, and the American public, should be told why the Republican leadership yanked our bill.

I suspect a clue can be found in the May 11 USA Today article reporting that the National Security Agency (NSA) had persuaded AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth to “voluntarily” hand over their customer records, without customer knowledge or consent, so that the agency could analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity. The Democratic Members of this Committee wrote a letter that day to Chairman Barton, asking for a hearing. We have not had that hearing, and I do not see any phone companies on the witness list for today or tomorrow. Why is that?

Also, Illegal pretexting – the use of false or fraudulent statements or representations – is not limited to consumer telephone records, as our witnesses will testify. With that in mind, on March 29, 2006, this Committee voted 41-0 to approve H.R. 4127, the “Data Accountability and Trust Act”, which expressly prohibits pretexting for personal information by data brokers. That bill is also in some kind of legislative limbo, with reports that important consumer protections may be eliminated. I hope that is not the case.

I commend the Chairman of the subcommittee for holding two days of hearings on this important issue, but I am concerned that important witnesses have not been heard from. I am also deeply concerned by what appears to have befallen both bipartisan products of this Committee’s timely legislative effort to address serious issues within its jurisdiction. The problem of pretexting will not go away; neither will consumer demands for protection.

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(Contact: Jodi Seth, 202-225-3641)