Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) and Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) have introduced a new bipartisan reform bill that works to help protect veterans from identity theft.According to a statement posted Thursday on Baldwin’s website, the Veterans’ Identity Theft Protection Act seeks to modify the Department of Veterans Affairs‘ current identity verification process, which requires Social Security numbers in all information systems.
“Our veterans should never be put at risk of identity theft with information that they have entrusted to the VA,” said Baldwin.
The statement noted the act will apply to veterans with new claims for benefits within two years as well as other former service members currently in VA systems within five years.
It added that VA can still use SSNs for information transfers to or from systems outside the agency that requires the use of the identifiers.
