Jan Meisels Allen of the International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies, and member of the Records Preservation Access Committee (RPAC) keeps abreast of developments that interest anyone concerned with access to public records. She sent out this update and we thought we should republish, with Jan's permission, of course.

The issue of identity theft and the Death Master File, also known under the commercial version, Social Security Death Index (SSDI)  has been discussed on this forum previously- with 4 bills having been introduced late last year: HR 3475 (Johnson R-TX); S 1534 (Nelson, D-FL),
HR 3482 (Castor D-FL) and HR 3215 (Castor-D-FL and Nugent R-FL).  On July 26, 2012 two more bills were introduced, interestingly by some of the same authors of the bills already introduced:

 S 3432 (Nelson D-FL, co-sponsored by Senator Tom Coburn R-OK)  click on: 
http://tinyurl.com/d46t7z4
 or see original url:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s3432is/pdf/BILLS-112s3432is.pdf

 and HR 6205 (Nugent -R-FL) click on: http://tinyurl.com/8uq9kos
 or see original url:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr6205ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr6205ih.pdf

Both of these new bills contain provisions for "certification" and a waiting period of 2 years. This is similar to the bills both authors also introduced in 2011 [S 1534 and H 3215] . The reason for introducing similar bills in 2012 as in 2011 may be as simple as the first bills did not receive a hearing and they wanted the bills to be on the "radar" of the committees they have been assigned.  As IAJGS learns more about these bills information about any potential hearing or other information will be posted to this forum.

IAJGS submitted statements on their position to earlier hearings on the issue of identity theft and the Death Master File/SSDI  --the hearings were not on specific bills, and their statements may be viewed at the Legislative Alert that is posted to their website at http://www.iajgs.org/pramc/Latest_Alert.pdf 

While this alert was updated in late May it is still valid regarding the issue of SSDI/Death Master File.  An updated Legislative Alert will be forthcoming shortly and when it is updated it will be announced on this forum.

Jan Meisels Allen
IAJGS Vice President
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

I want to thank Jan for her timely updates and informed communications directed towards the genealogical community.