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Last week, your League launched an Action Alert on Data Breach legislation that was recently introduced in the United States Senate. On Monday, May 4, your League announced it was expanding that Alert to include Maine's two members of the U.S. House of Representatives and ask for their sponsorship and support of H.R. 2205, the Data Security Act of 2015. H.R. 2205 is the companion bill to the Senate bill S. 961, which was the impetus of our initial Action Alert for last week.
According to your League, the Call To Action to Maine's two Senators and the expansion to include Congresswoman Pingree and Congressman Poliquin has already generated more than 500 emails and communications from Maine CUs but much more work needs to be done. "In order to have a maximum impact, we encourage credit union staff, management and volunteers to take a moment to contact their member of the U.S. House and both Senators. The amount of contacts makes a significant difference in our efforts to gain sponsorship and support for both bills."
The House bill, H.R. 2205, the Data Security Act of 2015, and the Senate bill S. 961, the Data Security Act of 2015, provides a real opportunity to work at fixing the problem of data breaches. Both bills strengthen merchant standards to be comparable with those of credit unions and mandate a federal notification requirement for merchants when breaches occur, as well as other, much-needed provisions.
Your League believes that S. 961 and, now H.R. 2205, represent the best attempt so far at legislation to stop merchant data breaches.
Please take the time to contact your member of the U.S. House of Representatives (either Congresswoman Pingree, or Congressman Poliquin), and both Senator Collins and Senator King asking for them to join as a co-sponsor of the applicable bill in the House and Senate.
A prefilled email template that can be sent to both Senators and the appropriate member of the House is available by clicking here.
Your League has also provided a link to access individual emails to members of Congress that can be access by clicking here.
Resources:
Memo On Expanded Call To Action (House and Senate)