Last week it was revealed that the personal information of 26.5 Million Veterans was stolen from a Veterans Administration employee who had brought the information home. The employee’s home was burglarized and the information, which was located on the employees laptop and external hard drive, went missing. Now the VA faces a monumental task of making sure that the Veterans it is charged with caring for don’t become victims of identity theft, a crime that has reached epidemic proportions in this nation, with 10 million victims in 2003 alone.
The costs of identity theft vary, but they are significant. According to a 2003 FTC study:
The survey found in the past 12 months that 3.23 million consumers discovered that new accounts had been opened, and other frauds such as renting an apartment or home, obtaining medical care or employment, had been committed in their name. In those cases, the loss to businesses and financial institutions was $10,200 per victim. Individual victims lost an average of $1,180. Where the thieves solely used a victim’s established accounts, the loss to businesses was $2,100 per victim. For all forms of identity theft, the loss to business was $4,800 and the loss to consumers was $500, on average.
And while this information has to do solely with the costs of identity theft itself, there is another big cost in the case of the 26.5 million lost identities (which is, incidentally, the largest single loss of social security data in US history)- mitigating the threat posed by this monumental blunder, which will not be cheap (the VA is estimating costs will be in the range of $500-million). This raises a big question: who will pay for these losses? One would hope that the VA would pay for its own mistakes, but it is already extremely strapped for cash with the huge influx of new vets and a stagnant budget.
Wounded Iraq Veteran and Fighting Dem, Tammy Duckworth, sent a letter to the Secretary of the VA last week demanding that the VA garuntee that this money will not be taken from its already strapped budget, posted in full:
May 26, 2006
The Hon. R. James Nicholson
Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20420
Dear Secretary Nicholson:
On this Memorial Day, I am among millions of veterans across the United States who have reason to fear that our most sensitive personal information has been jeopardized through negligent and irresponsible actions committed by staff at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Having read of your testimony yesterday before Congress, I note your statement that you share the anger and concern of veterans at this security breach, which has put our finances and credit ratings at risk. I encourage you to follow through on the promise you made to Congress to immediately inform veterans of these risks, as well as ensuring that VA records are much better protected in the future.
Here in Illinois’ 6th Congressional district, my fellow veterans and I are united in demanding answers and accountability– the same kind of accountability that was demanded of each of us during our service in the U.S. armed forces. Those responsible for this incident must be disciplined, steps must be taken to ensure that nothing like it ever occurs again, and actions must be carried out to assist the veterans who have now been placed at risk of financial and personal ruin.
As you acknowledged, repairing the problem and protecting affected veterans carries with it a price tag. As you pointed out during your testimony to members of the House and Senate yesterday, the cost may be as high as $500 million. The VA inspector general said that the cost of merely contacting each veteran by mail may be as high as $10 million. Obviously, the VA should take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the security of veterans’ personal information, and to make whole any veteran whose finances are compromised. But this must not be done at the expense of America’s veterans, themselves.
Therefore, I am writing to you today to request your assurance that the financial burden for such steps not be placed on the veterans themselves– nor financed by cuts in services on which veterans depend for their health and well-being. Based on recent actions by this administration and Congress, this is not an idle concern. Amazingly, even during a current time of war, the VA budget shows examples of an ongoing pattern of under-funding–or even cutting–vital services.
For example, I was greatly troubled to see the FY07 budget unveiled by this administration earlier this year called for a reduction of $13 million from the VA’s Medical and Prosthetics Research Program. At the same time, veterans would experience a doubling of their monthly prescription drug costs under the President’s budget.
Looking to the years ahead, this generation of veterans returning from the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq will seek treatment from the VA to a degree that the Department–based on current projections– appears unprepared to adequately assume. As you may recall, this was among the topics that I addressed during the testimony that I delivered to the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees in early 2005.
As someone who continues to receive treatment from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs–in my case, at Hines VA Medical Center–I know the value and importance of such programs. Thanks to the unparalleled skill and dedication of medical professionals at facilities such as Hines and throughout the VA system, we veterans receive outstanding care. However, we realize that our VA doctors, nurses, technicians and other hospital personnel often lack the full level of resources that they need. Please do not continue to create unwarranted challenges on these outstanding–yet often over-burdened–professionals.
During our meetings in the past, including during your visits to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, you expressed to me your personal dedication to the veterans’ community. At this moment, I am hopeful that you will follow-through on that commitment by ensuring that this dire situation is rectified quickly and in an appropriate manner.
Fixing the financial damage that has been done by the VA to millions of veterans is crucial. But equally important is ensuring that the costs associated with those efforts are not borne by veterans themselves. Given this administration’s track record of short-sighted decision-making when it comes to veterans’ medical services, I feel it necessary to alert you that veterans will find unacceptable any steps that fail this very reasonable standard.
I look forward to receiving an early response to this letter, with your assurance that the veterans of this nation will be protected from bearing the cost of repairing the recent security breach at the VA.
Sincerely,
Tammy Duckworth
Our veterans have given their time, their service, their life and limbs to protect our nation. The very least the VA can do is assure them that their service will not be effected due to mishandling of personal data by VA employees. I look forward to posting the VA’s response to Duckworth’s letter, all I have to say is: they better friggin respond!
Crossposted at Blue Force
