April 2005

Welcome to the April edition of my Washington Report. I hope this newsletter keeps you informed about some of the important matters facing our State, our Nation, and the U.S. Senate.

In this edition, you'll find information about the following:

• Keeping the Security in Social Security
• Legislation in Focus: Tackling Identity Theft
• Concerns about Off-Reservation Gaming
• Assistance to Storm Victims

If you have any comments or questions on these or any other issues, please don't hesitate to let me know. Please send any comments you have through my website.

Best wishes,

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein

Keeping the Security in Social Security
I am staunchly opposed to the President's plan to privatize Social Security. The Social Security program has been a great success. Before it was implemented 70 years ago, 50 percent of older Americans lived in poverty. Today, that number is down to 10 percent. But with half of all American workers not covered by retirement plans currently, a number that is due to increase in the future, the President's privatization plan could seriously jeopardize the retirement security of millions of Americans.

President Bush wants to dismantle the Social Security program, saying it is in crisis. In his State of the Union address, he claimed that it would be “exhausted and bankrupt” by 2042. However, the Social Security Board of Trustees estimates that the program can pay 100 percent of its promised benefits until 2041, even if no changes are made to the program. After 2041, recipients would continue to receive 70 percent of their benefits for the next three decades without any changes to the existing program.

Changes to Social Security are needed, but privatizing the program will worsen its financial problems and weaken this source of retirement and disability income that so many Americans depend on.

To learn more about what I'm doing on this important issue, please visit my Social Security web page.

Click here to read what constituents are saying about privatizing Social Security.

Click here to sign my petition to President Bush opposing the privatization of Social Security.

Read my recent op-ed: My vow not to throw Social Security overboard (San Francisco Chronicle, 2/4/05)

Legislation in Focus: Tackling Identity Theft
Nearly every week it seems that there is another massive breach of consumer information that leaves hundreds of thousands of Americans vulnerable to identity theft. Identity thieves are now perpetrating this invasive crime on a huge scale. In fact, the latest survey by the Better Business Bureau estimates that 9.3 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2004. And identity theft was the top consumer complaint reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2004 for the fifth consecutive year.

This is a particularly serious problem for the state of California, home to 4 of the top 10 U.S. cities in per capita identity theft. In Riverside, which has the second-highest rate of identity theft nationally, I recently joined with a group of law enforcement leaders and consumer groups to call for tougher laws to prevent this crime.

In the Congress, I’ve introduced three bills to give Americans more control over their personal data:

• The Privacy Act - A comprehensive bill that would set a national standard for protecting personal information. Modeled on California 's financial privacy law, it requires companies to get consumers' consent before their most sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, and health and financial records is shared. The legislation would also give consumers the choice to "opt out" when less sensitive information such as names and addresses is exchanged.

• The Social Security Number Misuse Prevention Act - This bill would prohibit the sale or display of Social Security numbers to the general public, and require Social Security numbers to be taken off of public records published on the Internet.

• The Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act - Modeled on California's database security law, this bill would require a business or government entity to notify an individual when it appears that a hacker has obtained unencrypted personal data and authorize the FTC to levy fines against those entities who do not notify consumers.

In the coming days, I plan to introduce an even tougher notification bill to ensure that our personal information is better protected from identity thieves. And on April 13, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on my legislation and the recent ChoicePoint case in which the data of 145,000 consumers was compromised.

To learn more about my efforts to tackle identity theft, please visit my Identity Theft web page.

Recent news: Statement of Senator Feinstein on New Personal Database Breach by Identity Thieves (3/9/05)

Statement of Senator Feinstein on Recent Loss of Bank of America Transaction Records (2/25/05)

Concerns about Off-Reservation Gaming
Off-reservation gaming was clearly not what the people of California voted for when they overwhelmingly passed Proposition 1A in March 2000 to allow tribes in the State to engage in Nevada-style gaming on "tribal lands." Not only did the Proposition language clearly state that gaming would take place on "Indian" or "tribal" lands, but this claim permeated the entire campaign in support of Indian gaming in California.

One recent proposal by the Lytton Tribe was to build a 5,000-slot, 6- to 8-story casino on newly-acquired lands in the San Francisco Bay Area. The tribe has since scaled back the size of its proposed casino, but a provision slipped into a bill passed in 2000 had made such a massive casino a possibility. The provision mandated that the Secretary of Interior take a card club and adjacent parking lot into trust for the Tribe as part of their reservation and backdate the acquisition date to October 17, 1988. This would have enabled the Lyttons to proceed with their plans for a casino without being subject to the process laid out in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). I've introduced legislation to require the Lytton Tribe to follow the same process followed by every other Indian Tribe set out under IGRA for gaming on newly-acquired lands.

To learn more about my legislation, please go to: Senator Feinstein Testifies on Lytton Casino Bill (4/5/05)

Assistance to Storm Victims
This winter's storms in Southern California killed 40 people, destroyed or damaged nearly 2,400 homes and businesses and caused $296 million in damage to public facilities alone. On February 4, President Bush responded by declaring parts of Southern California affected by the December 27 - January 11 storms a federal disaster area. Certain individuals and businesses in eight counties are now eligible for disaster assistance.

On February 23, I sent a letter to the President urging that a federal disaster be declared for the February storms. I am still waiting to hear back from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on this request, but it is my hope that assistance will soon be made available. To find out whether you are eligible for assistance, please visit my Resource Guide for Storm Victims.

I'm also pleased to announce that I recently secured $34.3 million in funding for flood-damaged roads on forest land in Southern California. This funding will make it easier for firefighters to gain access to fires and contain them before they burn out of control.

To learn more about my efforts to respond to recent natural disasters, please go to: Senate Panel Approves Feinstein Measure to Provide $34.3 Million to Fix Flood-Damaged Roads in Southern California Forests (4/6/05)

FEMA to Expand Storm Assistance to Additional Counties (3/18/05)

Senator Feinstein Asks President Bush to Help California Recover from Devastating Storms (2/23/05)

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