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From: Lauren Boyd <>
Subject: [MarinGenSoc] Legislative Report: Identity Theft
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 08:13:00 -0700


Dear Listmembers:

Jonelle Russell posted this to the Sonoma County Genealogical
Society's list. I thought it would be of interest to you as
well.

Happy Trails,

Lauren

Lauren M. Boyd
Listowner, MarinGenSoc-L
LEGISLATIVE REPORT

As hectic as things are in Sacramento, the Assembly still found time
to put forth over 1500 bills, and the Senate, has more than 600.

This past week our Attorney General Lockhart held a news conference to
discuss his office's effort to curtail identify theft. Obviously, this
is an ongoing problem, but I was amazed at the numbers when I checked
the new bills for this session on both identity theft and privacy of
personal information. We have been following these issues since I
began this job in 1995 because one of the possible problems inherent
to protecting privacy and preventing identity theft legislation is the
possible closure of records. No one feels stronger than I that our
right to privacy should be protected, but at the same time, we must
work to continue to protect access to historic records. This goes to
the protection of our rights as free citizens.

Of the nearly one dozen bills aimed at protecting individual privacy
and prevention of identification theft, we have two bills for changes
in the Dept of Information Technology, AB1624 and AB1559; AB397 will
require a certificate of registration before one can vote; SB661 will
require identification biometric identifiers on driver's licenses.
AB1474 is a Task Force 'spot bill' on Identity Theft; a second AB1155
on Identity Theft; and a third AB655 on identity theft. There are two
Financial Transaction Privacy bills on personal information AB203 and
AB1289 which virtually say the same thing. There are also two 'spot
bills' on Privacy Protection, SB763 by Senator Murray and
SB666 by Senator Peace. And at least one more on Identity Theft AB655
by Assembly Member Wright. Several of these bills are aimed at the
Department of Motor Vehicles to prevent driver's license thefts and
tightening control of personal information as it passes through
government departments.

Commentary: After a heads-up from CSGA Historian Carlyle Parker, I
tuned into Senator Peace's hearing on cable of SB666. I found myself
in a state of total recall. Some of you may remember that I served for
two years on an advisory committee to the Joint Task Force on Privacy.
At the end of that two years, nothing was done with the findings, not
even a report was issued until the next session of the legislature.
Then Senator Peace held hearings once again. He had 'spot bill' that
took two years to work its way through the process [SB129]. The
wording was put into place, and the bill did pass and become law. The
wording changed only slightly the codes already in place. So, why
are we revisiting this issue? According to the Senator, yesterday he
said that the previous bill put into place the policy practiced by the
state regarding privacy of personal information. So, now what? I saw
the same issues revisited, many of the same speakers who had been part
of the panels last session and the session before. While the
Senator says that he does not wish to close public records, he has a
big concern about public records being assimilated, collated and made
available on data bases, making such information easy to access. So,
once again we will follow these bills and keep you informed.

Meanwhile, Assembly Anthony Pescetti's new version of AB1779,
[AB1368] that will established the California Historic Cemetery
Commission is scheduled for a hearing before the Business and
Professions Committee on April 24, 2001. The Historic Cemetery
Alliance, the Genealogical and Historical Council of Sacramento Valley
and the Conference of California Historical Conferences are working to
see if this time, the Governor can be persuaded to sign the bill. The
bill says it will establish, until January 1, 2007, the California
Historic Cemetery Commission with a specified membership appointed as
provided under the bill, and with prescribed duties related to
historic cemeteries. The bill would define a historic cemetery for
purposes of this bill. The only change is the added limited
duration of the commission.

If you wish to follow State Legislation you may check the State Web
site at http://www.sen.ca.gov>; or order copies from the Bill Room,
State Capital, Sacramento, CA 95814 or call to order 916-445-2323. To
be added to my Network, send your name, name of your organization, and
e-mail address, stating you wish to be added to the
Legislative Network, to <>.

Permission is granted to reprint Legislative reports. Please cite your
source. ----Iris Carter Jones, Legislative Network
Coordinator, April 4, 2001.

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