WASHINGTON - Dillon Shea, director of political affairs for NAFCU, said while he is not familiar with the efforts of state lawmakers, "Certainly the more things are passed at state levels creates incentives to get things passed at the federal level so financial institutions don't have to deal with a patchwork of state laws."
About two years ago, Shea recalled, the House Financial Services Committee was looking at data security legislation. He said a number of financial institutions and trade associations that represent financial institutions were working on keeping financial institutions from "holding the bag" in the wake of a breach.
"It never moved forward, as there has been a long-standing jurisdictional squabble between the House Financial Services Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee over who has jurisdiction over data security."
Ryan Donovan, CUNA's vice president of legislative affairs, told Credit Union Journal: "A federal approach to the issue continues to be without resolution as at least six committees have claimed jurisdiction. Given the three weeks left in this Congress, and the likelihood that housing will be the issue of debate during that time, it seems unlikely data security will attain prominent attention for the balance of this Congress.
"Our position, however, remains uncompromised: Make the parties responsible for the breach pay the costs for notification and reissuing of cards, and adopt as federal law the credit card companies' security rules," Donovan added.(c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/
