Senators Feinstein, Kyl, Grassley, and Sessions Introduce New Legislation to
Increase Penalties for Identity Theft Crimes
May 22, 2002

Washington, DC - U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Charles Grassley (R-IA), and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) today introduced legislation, developed in coordination with the Justice Department, to help law enforcement capture and prosecute serious identity thieves. Senator Feinstein and Attorney General John Ashcroft unveiled plans for this legislation at a Justice Department ceremony two weeks ago.

"Every day, serious criminals and criminal organizations are stealing and falsifying identities with the purpose of doing serious harm to common citizens, government officials, or even our nation itself, and it is time we did something about it," Senator Feinstein said. "This legislation will make it easier for prosecutors to target those identity thieves who steal an identity for the purpose of committing one or more other crimes."

"It is meant to send a strong signal to all those who would commit this crime that the relatively free ride they have experienced in recent years is over. No longer will prosecutors decline to take identity theft seriously. No longer will identity thieves get off with just a slap on the wrist, if they are prosecuted at all. Under this legislation, penalties will be severe, prosecution will be more likely, and cases against identity thieves will be easier to prove."

Specifically, the legislation would:

  • Increase penalties by two years for anyone who commits "aggravated identity theft" in order to commit a serious federal predicate offense (including immigration violations, false citizenship crimes, firearms offenses, and other serious crimes);

  • Increase penalties by five years for anyone who commits identity theft for the purpose of committing a terrorist act;

The additional years would have to run consecutively with the sentence for the underlying crime, but a judge could combine terms of additional identity thefts committed to perpetrate the same underlying offense.

  • Make it easier for prosecutors to prove identity theft, by stating that as long as criminal intent is proved for the underlying offense, no further proof of intent is required.

  • Add the word "possesses" to current law so that prosecutors can go after ID thieves who possess false identity documents with the intent to commit a crime. Current law only punishes transfer or sale of those documents

  • Amends current law to increase from three to five years the maximum term of imprisonment for ordinary identity theft and for possession of false identification documents.

  • Amend current law to impose a higher maximum penalty for identity theft used to facilitate acts of domestic terrorism. Current law imposes this same penalty for an act of international terrorism, but not domestic terrorism.

"Identity theft comes in many forms and can be perpetrated in many ways. That is why I have worked for many years with Senator Jon Kyl and others to put some safeguards into the law that might better prevent the fraud from occurring in the first place, and to crack down on identity thieves," Senator Feinstein said. "I look forward to working with the Justice Department and my Senate colleagues to see this bill passed and signed into law as soon as possible."

Senator Feinstein has long been interested in combating identity theft. In the 107th Congress, she introduced legislation that would prohibit anyone from selling or displaying a Social Security number to the general public without the Social Security number holder's consent. Separate legislation would give identity theft victims tools to restore their identity.

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