CAPITOL HILL, Washington, DC— A House subcommittee will begin deliberations next week over a data security bill that could force the VA to delete personally identifiable information (PII) from military headstones and memorials, officials confirm.
The Subcommittee on Health is scheduled to review bipartisan House Resolution 6764, the Service Member Privacy and Caregiver Awareness Act. “We have a duty to protect service members’ personally identifiable information,” VA press secretary Terrence Hayes told reporters yesterday in an online press conference. “Here, Congress is worried about the rise in identity theft of deceased persons for financial fraud.”
“This bill would bring us into compliance with ‘HIPAA,’ the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996,” said Hayes. “The VA is the only cabinet-level agency that cares for its patients forever, and I want you to put that word in italics.”
The bill’s wording directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to obtain written consent authorizing public release of PII such as full name, dates of birth and death, and religious preference (excluding atheists) from all service members or their estates “[n]ot later than one year after the date of the enactment.”
After one year, the VA would begin removing PII from publicly accessible databases, grave markers, and national memorials to protect service members’ privacy. “Just modifying or replacing headstones would be the most expensive project we’ve undertaken so we may just remove them and stack them somewhere secure. I mean people will still generally know where their loved ones are,” said the press secretary.
