>>ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO GONZALES

Good afternoon, I'm pleased to be here with Deborah Platt Majoras,

President of the Federal Trade Commission for this announcement.
Deborah and I co-chair a taskforce delivered to the president the
comprehensive plan to fight identity threat, which is a serious problem in
our country. This affects millions of Americans every year costing billions
of dollars but it really goes beyond the loss of money or property. It is a
personal invasion done in secret that can hurt people's names. It can hurt
a credit history and cause bewildering damage caused by the thieves. We
acknowledged this is not a new problem and our report builds upon many
years of effort our federal, state and local partners as well as a private
sector and non-private organizations. Much has been accomplished, and
there are more protections in place now than ever before. But the
President and the Taskforce recognize that we need to do more. And this
new plan represents an important step forward in America's efforts to fight
back against identity theft.
The recently reported public exposure of Social Security Numbers by
federal agency is problematic and does serve as a timely reminder that all
of us, including the government, must be careful when handling people's
personal information. This is exactly the type of vulnerability that the
Taskforce's recommendations have identified. We are trying to fight this
crime, protect consumers and help victims put their lives back together.
Now several of these points were announced last September as interim
recommendations and I'm pleased that all of those have already been
implemented or are in the process of being implemented.
Preventing identity theft is about more than just protecting businesses and
consumers; it is also about national security. And one of the task forces'
primary recommendations is the Federal Government established a
national identity theft law enforcement center. This effort will increase our
ability to analyze ID theft, complaint data and other intelligence from the
public and private sectors and to make that information available to our law
enforcement partners at all levels.
Identity thieves, as we all know, do not respect jurisdictional boundaries.
And allowing agents and officers across the country to share information
will help them connect the dots between seemingly unrelated
investigations. That same level of cooperation is necessary with our
foreign law enforcement partners, as well. And national identity theft law
enforcement center will make a real difference in our ability to investigate,
prosecute and punish identity thieves. The taskforce also recognized that
many of our current criminal statutes have not been updated to allow law
enforcement to keep pace with new and developing methods used by
identity thieves. We therefore recommending a variety of legislative
proposals aimed at strengthening enforcement, including ways to close
loopholes in existing laws so that prosecutors have the appropriate tools
for charging these crimes.
These legislative proposals include amendments to the restitution statutes
to enable victims to recover the value of time spent attempting to make
themselves whole. And they include important measures to assure federal
authority to prosecute the use of malicious spy ware, to broaden the
statutes of criminalizes theft of electronic data and to permit prosecutors to
charge aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year
prison term in a larger number of cases.
When the President established this taskforce last May, he met with
victims of identity theft. He heard their voices and he asked the Taskforce
to step up and make a difference. With this report, we have made good on
that promise. I'd like to thank the many law enforcement and victims' rights
groups here today who will be instrumental in implementing the plan,
including the national district attorney's association, the National
Association of attorneys general, the Fraternal Order of Police, the
international association of Chiefs of police, the national center for victims
of crime, and the police executive research forum.
Now we will hear from chairman Majoras before taking your questions.
>>CHAIRMAN MAJORAS
Thank you very much, Mr. Gonzales. Today we take another important
step forward in our efforts to combat identity theft, recognizing that this is
part of a continuing process and not a one-time event. Identity theft is the
misuse of another individual's personal information to commit fraud. It is a
blight on America's privacy and security landscape. It robs consumers of
their time and money. It drains businesses of finances and efficiency. And
it erodes a critical element of our economy: Trust in a person's good name
and credit.
A recent survey conducted showed that 91 percent of respondents worry
about identity theft. Protecting the privacy and identity of consumers has
long been a priority of the Federal Trade Commission and we continue to
receive 15 to 20,000 consumer communications about identity theft every
week. More than 1500 law enforcement agencies now have access to the
FTC's identity theft data clearinghouse, a central database of more than 1
million victim complaints. As we continue to learn from our work, one thing
is clear. Only a coordinated approach will have the reach and impact
necessary to effectively attack this crime.
Less than one year ago, Attorney General Gonzales and I accepted the
President's assignment to lead the development of a strategic plan to
combat identity theft and to recommend ways improve the effectiveness
and efficiency of the Federal Government's activities in awareness,
prevention, detection and prosecution of this crime. The Department of
Justice, the FTC and 15 additional federal departments and agencies have
worked together since then to meet the President's challenge.
Each of the Taskforce member agencies and departments has played an
important role in developing this strategic plan, but real work remains. Not
only for the taskforce members, but for the entire Federal Government and
state and local government partners, for the entire private sector and for
each and every one of our citizens.
While we, as a nation, have eagerly embraced new technologies and
modes of communication in this information age, we were perhaps slower
to grasp how adeptly criminals also would adopt these same avenues to
steal personal information. We are catching up. Many federal agencies,
businesses and other organizations have increased their efforts to
safeguard sensitive data. Consumers have been better educated about
how to guard against and then how to respond to ID theft.
As the Attorney General has remarked, of course, strong criminal
enforcement is key in these efforts. And it has been increasing. But we
are not yet satisfied. Data security breaches remain too common, and
schemes for committing ID theft are growing more sophisticated.
Protecting the security of consumers' personal data cannot be an
afterthought. It must be organically incorporated into every organization's
procedures and into every American's habits.
The strategic plan we are releasing today recommends 31 measures
containing scores of more specific recommendations some are already in
place. Others we will implement within the next year. The
recommendation spans all sectors of the economy and they target the
entire life cycle of identity theft, from access to sensitive consumer data to
its acquisition, to its misuse, to the investigation and prosecution of the
criminals and to the victims' recovery. And to provide a few examples in
general terms, the plan calls for us to reduce the unnecessary use of
Social Security Numbers in the public sector. To better protect data that
must be held by Federal Government agencies, to establish national
safeguards to require private sector entities to protect consumers' personal
data and to notify consumers of certain breaches. implement a broader
education campaign to educate consumers who are often the first line of
defense and the public and private sectors on how to deter, detect and
defend against ID theft; and, finally, as Attorney General Gonzales
mentioned, creating a national identity theft law enforcement center to
allow more efficient and effective law enforcement against this crime.
I am proud to be a part of this comprehensive federal effort, and I am
committed to continuing to work with my colleagues to implement the
recommendations within the time frames we have outlined. Before we
take your questions, I'd like to acknowledge and thank all of our taskforce
colleagues. I also thank all of the stakeholders, including those, the
Attorney General mentioned and also we heard from identity theft victims
on this report and they offered -- they and other stakeholders offered very
useful and productive suggestions for our plans. And finally but especially
I thank Ron Tempest and Mike from the Department of Justice and Betsy
from the FTC from their tremendous efforts on this. Questions?
>>SPEAKER
Mr. Attorney General, we haven't heard from your testimony on Thursday,
can we ask you? They said very, very damaging to your credibility.
(Inaudible) the question of whether you can be credible and whether or not
you can be an effective Attorney General. Do you still believe you can?
And have you offered the information?
>>ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES
No, I'm focused on making sure our kids are safe. Making sure our
neighborhoods are safe. Making sure consumers are safe. And that's one
of the reasons I'm here today. So I'm focused on doing the job for the
American people.
>>SPEAKER
How long do you plan on staying (Inaudible).
>>ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES
I will stay as long as I feel I can be effective. I believe I can be effective.
Obviously we'll be working with the Congress to reassure them that we've
identified the mistakes that have been made here and we're taking steps to
address them. But I can't just keep focused on the U.S. Attorney situation.
I've also got to be focused on what's really important to the American
people.
>>SPEAKER
Question my colleagues lost the confidence of a lot of people on Capitol
Hill. As part of justice morale has plummeted. My question to you, sir, it
seems you are disagreeing with me, but my question is do you
acknowledge that your continued leadership at the department will harm or
hurt this operation at such an important time when the department is --
>>ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES
Of course it's something that I always take into consideration. I think a
cabinet secretary or the head of an agency every day should wake up and
ask themselves that question. Am I still effective in this position? I think
that's a question that all of us should ask every day. And as long as I think
that I can be effective and the President believes that I should continue to
be at the head of the Department of Justice, I'll continue serving as the
Attorney General.
>>SPEAKER
Mr. Attorney General, in light of the tragedies, are you looking into whether
state laws are effective enough in preventing the mentally ill from
purchasing handguns.
>>ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES
What we're looking at is we're working with the education center, Mike
Leavitt being the secretary of health and human services, from my
perspective, what we're looking at is to see whether or not this
information -- what information about mental health should law
enforcement officials have? And what are the barriers that prevent law
enforcement from having that information? That's what I will be looking at
from the perspective of the Department of Justice. And of course
secretary Leavitt will be looking at it from his vantage point as will
secretary spellings.
>>SPEAKER
You and the chairman on identity theft.
>>ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES
Good, thank you.
>>SPEAKER
(Inaudible) a lot of the victims have problems with their information being --
thieves using their Social Security Number. (Inaudible) free disclosure of
credit report. My quick perusal of this report doesn't show that issue
addressed. I think that you're going to have a comprehensive solution. My
question is: Is this addressed in here? If not, why not? Shouldn't that be
something looked at and have a policy solution by the Administration?
Because it will be before Congress.
>>CHAIRMAN MAJORAS
Well, we do address it in this way. You are right. States over time have
been passing laws that permit consumers to put what's called a credit
freeze on their reports. Now they started doing that shortly after the Fact
Act was signed in 2003. The Fact Act put in place a lot of federal
protection for consumers. And so we've wanted to see, quite frankly,
what's working and what's not. So what the report contains is a
recommendation that we do a careful examination of what has happened
in the states in which the credit freeze statutes have passed, how effective
those have been. Also looking at how effective the protections in the Fact
Act have been and then we can formulate a better position to assist
Congress or any other policy maker.
>>ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES
Let me just emphasize this is not the end of the analysis or discussion.
This is a serious problem. It is a serious problem for consumers. It is a
serious problem for businesses. And I think this provides an important
step forward, as I indicated in my remarks. But I worry about this as
Attorney General. I know the chairman is also likewise very concerned
about this issue. And we need to do more to educate the American public,
the American consumer about the dangers of identity theft. It's serious.
It's prevalent. And it's increasing.
>>SPEAKER
(Inaudible) how do you measure if you're effective? What in your mind
means ineffective?
>>ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES
Well, listen, there are a series of priorities, a series of objectives that I want
to see accomplished as Attorney General. I think we've done a lot of good
things in the last two years. And I think moving forward, the question is
whether or not can those objectives be achieved? And I will continue to
believe that they can be achieved. And we are working as hard as we can
to achieve those objectives. Obviously as head of an agency, like every
head of an agency, you worry about questions about morale. You address
those specific concerns. The way I do it is by speaking directly to U.S.
attorneys, by speaking directly to the component heads and talking about
my vision for the department moving forward, encouraging them to
understand and realize the importance of staying focused on the mission.
That's what the American people expect from the Department of Justice, is
to stay focused on the mission. Because what we do as the department is
too important to ignore that. And so that's the mission that I'm delivering to
the folks in our department.
>>SPEAKER
Take one more question?
>>SPEAKER
(Inaudible).
>>ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES
Well, sure, I'll talk about things that I worry about. I worry about protecting
our kids from predators on the Internet. That's something that I'm very
concerned about and that we wrote out for a project, project safe childhood
to work with state and local partners to make parents, to make people in
communities aware of the dangers of the Internet use. And that's where
many predators are targeting our kids.
I worry about the safety of our neighborhoods, particularly gangs, gun
crimes and drugs.
I worry about public corruption. I think our record with respect to going
after public corruption, those who breached the public trust is outstanding.
I worry about the enforcement of Civil Rights. As a minority, I understand
the importance of our Civil Rights laws and the importance of insuring that
those laws are in fact enforced.
I worry, of course, about the safety of our country from terrorism. I receive
intelligence briefings every morning. I realize that there's still serious
threats to our country. There are serious threats to our interest overseas.
So these are the issues that I'm focused on.
I think we've made good progress on many of these issues in the past two
years, and I'm confident we can continue to make progress. (Inaudible)
pardon me? I'm intent on working with the Congress and reassuring the
Congress that we are identifying happened here. We're going to correct
mistakes that have been made. I've accepted the responsibility for the
mistakes that I've made. So, yes, I have an obligation to work with
Congress and I will continue to work with Congress like I have in the past
two years. I've already indicated that I've made mistakes and I accept
responsibility for that. Thank you very much.
>>SPEAKER
Thank you.
>>CHAIRMAN MAJORAS
Thank you.