Poison Center Network Act

I thank the distinguished gentleman, and I thank the manager of this legislation, and I thank the good intentions of our colleagues.

I want to pause for a moment, Mr. Pallone, and just simply say that although these are important issues, as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, I helped draft the PATRIOT Act and business record 215, and we are now looking to constrain the collection of mega-data, and I accept the importance of privacy for the American people. But I pause for just a moment to ask my colleagues, we have enough time today to actually pass the extension of the unemployment benefits. There are 1.3 million people, 12,000 in my own community, who would like us to stay here and make sure that we get that done. I hope that my friends on the other side of the aisle will accept the challenge of Republicans putting an extension of the unemployment benefits on the floor to help unemployed Americans.

But this is an important issue as well, and I do want to say that our friends have not documented any breach on personal and private data of those individuals that have accessed the Affordable Care Act, which are 9 million plus, and growing. We have had 46 votes to repeal it. Now we come one by one with legislation that has not gone through regular order. It has not gone through the committee process. It has very good intentions; but, in actuality, it may be overly burdensome because, Mr. Speaker, there is no bar. There is no limit for HHS to provide notice for any possible breach within seconds or minutes or hours after the incident may have occurred.

Frankly, this legislation doesn't go far enough. Let me give you a few facts. The Affordable Care Act implementation of healthcare.gov is under the authority of HHS. HHS assigned the task for developing healthcare.gov to the agency's Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Under the Federal Privacy Act, all Federal agencies must draft regulations to protect personally identifiable information under their control.

The Federal Privacy Act was established by an act of Congress and concurrence of the executive branch to balance the government's need to maintain personal information on Americans with the right of individuals to be protected against unwarranted invasions of their privacy.

The Privacy Act came as a direct result of the work of the Church Committee following revelations that the government has routinely used records on citizens for political purposes to engage in surveillance or retaliatory activity. There were a series of laws

passed by Congress to protect the privacy of Americans.

Computer records management was of such grave concern to Members of Congress following investigations into disclosures that then-President Nixon had used his high office to seek out by means to exact retribution against political enemies by causing harm to careers, reputations as well as financial injury through IRS audits.

So we have had an intense interest since the report ``Records, Computers, and the Rights of Citizens'' was produced in 1973. HHS is chiefly responsible for why the United States became the first Nation in the world to draft a Federal privacy law. They know what to do. They developed the Code of Fair Information practices which have five principles, one of which says there must be no personal data recordkeeping systems whose very existence is secret, that is, to not use the data of people in the wrong way.

There is the CMS Policy for Privacy Act, and I offer this for the Record.

The baseline of my point is that HHS was at the core of developing privacy. There have been no known breaches. There is no bar for CMS and HHS to tell the American public or the individual immediately.

This bill will add burdensome requirements and may--it may--distract or take away from legal and lawful law enforcement investigations. I ask that we look at this together in a bipartisan manner. I believe in privacy. I hope we can work together, Mr. Pallone, and make this what it should be; but I think the American people are protected.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on H.R. 3811, the Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act of 2014.

I would like to commend the author of the bill for the focus on privacy.

Privacy protection is a policy area that has strong bi-partisan agreement.

However, because H.R. 3811 did not go through regular order there was no opportunity for the Committees of jurisdiction to provide valuable input into its drafting.

I would like to offer a few facts that may make it clear that this bill, although well intentioned is not necessary in its current form.

The Affordable Care Act implementation of healthcare.gov is under the authority of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

HHS assigned the task for developing healthcare.gov to the agency's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Under the Federal Privacy Act all federal agencies must draft regulations to protect personally identifiable information under their control.

The Federal Privacy Act was established by an act of Congress and concurrence of the Executive Branch to balance the Government's need to maintain personal information on Americans with the right of individuals to be protected against unwarranted invasions of their privacy.

The Privacy Act came as a direct result of the work of the Church Committee following revelations that the government had routinely used records on citizens for political purposes to engage in surveillance or retaliatory activity a series of laws were passed by Congress to protect the privacy of Americans.

Computer records management was of such grave concern to members of Congress following investigations into disclosures that then President Nixon had used his high office to seek out means to exact retribution against political enemies by causing harm to careers, reputations as well as financial injury through IRS audits.

In 1973, a report ``Records, Computers, and the Rights of Citizens'' was produced by the former Federal Department of Health Education and Welfare (HEW), which today exists as two agencies one of which is the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) established the first federal agency privacy policies for information held on Americans.

HHS is chiefly responsible for why the United States became the first nation in the world to draft a federal privacy law.

HHS developed the Code of Fair Information practices which later became the basis for the Federal Privacy Act.

The Code of Fair Information Practices has five principles:

There must be no personal data record-keeping systems whose very existence is secret.

There must be a way for a person to find out what information about the person is in a record and how it is used.

There must be a way for a person to prevent information about the person that was obtained for one purpose from being used or made available for other purposes without the person's consent.

There must be a way for a person to correct or amend a record of identifiable information about the person.

Any organization creating, maintaining, using, or disseminating records of identifiable personal data must assure the reliability of the data for their intended use and must take precautions to prevent misuses of the data.

The Federal Privacy Act protects all personal information managed by Federal agencies.

We know that not all agencies do a good job at protecting the personal information of citizens so today's focus on privacy is relevant and important.

However, our focus should be much broader and better informed regarding the work of each agency in this area.

Committee hearings would have been beneficial in informing the drafters of H.R. 3811, prior to its introduction on the Floor of the House for a vote.

For example, authors of the bill may have taken a different approach if it was acknowledged that the CMS has several policy documents specific to the topic of protecting personal identifiable information of medical records data:

CMS Policy for Privacy Act Implementation & Breach Notification (7/ 23/07)

Risk Management Handbook Volume III Standard 7.1 (12/6/12)

Incident Handling and Breach Notification

CMS Privacy Policy is written to meet obligations established by the Federal Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C., 552a), the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (Public Law 100-503) and the Department of Health and Human Services Privacy Act Regulations (45 C.F.R. Part 5b).

I want to assure my colleagues that under the Federal Privacy Act all Federal agencies must ``develop an effective response to [breaches] that requires disclosure of information regarding the breach to those individuals affected by it, as well as to persons and entities in a position to cooperate, either by assisting in notification to affected individuals or playing a role in preventing or minimizing harms from the breach.''

All agencies, which include CMS, must report all incidents involving personally identifiable information to US-Computer Readiness Team or (US-CERT).

The US-CERT reporting requirement does not distinguish between potential and confirmed breaches--all must be reported within 1 hour of discovery/detection.

The CMS policy on breach notification has 5 criteria to determine if a breach has occurred:

Nature of the Data Elements Breached

Number of Individuals Affected

Likelihood the Information is Accessible and Usable

Likelihood the Breach May Lead to Harm

Ability of the Agency to Mitigate the Risk of Harm

CMS is directed to provide notification without unreasonable delay following the discovery of a breach, consistent with the needs of law enforcement and any measures necessary for CMS to determine the scope of the breach and, if necessary, to restore the integrity of the computerized system.

The consideration of Law-enforcement in government agency breaches is very important because this type of crime can take place in seconds or it may occur over hours, days, weeks or months.

Law-enforcement in investigation of data breaches attempts to identify the culprit(s) and others who may be involved.

To avoid impeding the efforts of law-enforcement or national security H.R. 3811, the Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act of 2014 should have included a law-enforcement exception.

Responsibility for information on individuals whose personally identifiable information has been breached is the CMS Administrator the highest official of the agency.

However, if the data breach is under 50, the notice may also be issued by the CMS Chief Information Officer or Senior Official for Privacy.

CMS Breach Notification to individuals must be in writing that should be ``concise, conspicuous, and in plain language'' and include the following:

Brief description of what happened, including date(s) and its discovery;

Description of the types of information involved in the breach;

Whether the information was encrypted or protected by other means when determined the information may be useful or compromise the security of the system;

What steps individuals should take to protect themselves from potential harm;

What the agency is doing; and

Who affected individuals should contact

There is no evidence that healthcare.gov had a breach of personal information.

If such a breach had occurred it would not be secret and members of this body would have been briefed.

First, the most important rule for cyber security is following the example of the professionals who work in this fast paced area: truth comes before beauty. The truth is that there is no computer system that is 100 percent secure from hostile cyber attacks, natural disasters, structural failures or human errors.

Second, the Internet is a rough neighborhood--the best we can do is to design the best systems possible provide the resources necessary to follow through on good security and privacy designs and ignore the politics of the moment. The most dangerous threats to cyber security do not care about anyone's political party they may care very much about your nation of origin.

Third, cyber security is not about the 14 year old with a laptop, but the botnet attack from a coordinate effort that brings to the discussion significant threats to networks. There is no evidence that nothing occurred that would suggest that the website experienced anything of this nature.

Congress should use regular order to consider means and methods of securing all federal data that is categorized as personally identifiable information.

Attempts to misinform or frighten Americans regarding the healthcare.gov or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act implementation mechanisms are unwarranted.

CMS has a detailed and well managed program for ensuring that personally identifiable information is secure and when questions arise they have a top level ``Incident Handling'' protocol that is through in investigating issues and uncovering the facts regarding suspected breaches.

CMS relies upon US-CERT, which is part of DHS' National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) to address breaches of data it manages.

The Department of Homeland Security's United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) leads efforts to improve the nation's cybersecurity posture, coordinate cyber information sharing, and proactively manage cyber risks to the Nation while protecting the constitutional rights of Americans.

CMS informs US-CERT within an hour of a suspected breach incident.

However, a report does not mean that an incident occurred an investigation must proceed to determine if the report is valid.

It is important note that premature breach notices being sent to consumers regarding their personally identifiable information could have unintended and adverse outcomes for several reasons:

Notice fatigue--too many notices and people stop paying attention;

Increased cost of administering a program due to additional communications that inform people that the initial breach notice was a false alarm;

Giving notice to cyber criminals or terrorists that they have been discovered before law enforcement or national security can assess how the extent of the threat, the target or objective of the attack and trace the source of the threat with the goal of identifying the culprits; and

Correcting the problem that allowed the breach to occur

HHS should only collect the personally identifiable information that is necessary, used it for the purpose of the collection and promptly discarded that data so no database or system of records is created.

I commend my colleagues for the focus on Privacy and hope that we can work together to improve the protection of personal information on Americans throughout the Federal Government.

I strongly recommend that my colleagues vote to send this bill back for committee consideration so that its goal of improving privacy protection can be better matched to the reality of what CMS is currently doing in the area of breach notification, which conforms to what Americans need and law-enforcement as well as national security must have to protect federal agency computer networks.

1 Introduction

CMS must be able to respond to computer security-related

and/or privacy-related incidents in a manner that protects

its own information and helps to protect the information of

others that might be affected by the incident.

This Risk Management Handbook Volume III, Standard 7.1,

Incident Handling and Breach Notification standard, along

with the companion procedures of the RMH Volume II, Procedure

7.2, Incident Handling, supersedes the CMS Information

Security (IS) Incident Handling and Breach Analysis/

Notification Procedure dated December 3, 2010.

1.1 Background

1.1.1 SECURITY EVENT

A Security Event is an observable occurrence in a network

or system (e.g., known or suspected penetrations of

information Technology (IT) resources, probes, infections,

log reviews), or any occurrence that potentially could

threaten CMS data confidentiality, integrity, or

availability.

1.1.2 REPORTABLE EVENT

A Reportable Event is any activity or occurrence that

involves:

A matter that a reasonable person would consider a

violation of criminal, civil, or administrative laws

applicable to any Medicare contract or federal health care

program.

Integrity violations, including any known, probable, or

suspected violation of any Medicare contract term or

provision.

A matter considered to have an ``adverse'' impact on the IT

system/infrastructure or CMS data confidentiality, integrity,

or availability. Examples of specific events that should be

reported include (but are not limited to):

Unauthorized access to or use of sensitive data for illegal

purposes.

Unauthorized altering of data, programs, or hardware.

Loss of mission-essential data (i.e., patient, financial,

benefits, legal, etc.).

Environmental damage/disaster (greater than $10,000)

causing loss of IT services or data, or which may be less

than $10,000 in damage yet affect CMS' ability to continue

any day-to-day functions and operations.

Infection of sensitive systems, firmware, or software by

malicious code (i.e., Viruses, Worms and Trojan Horses,

etc.).

Perpetrated theft, fraud, vandalism, and other criminal

computer activity that did, or may, affect the organization's

capabilities to continue day-to-day functions and operations.

Telecommunications/network security violations, i.e.,

networks (including local area networks [LANs], metropolitan

area networks [MANs], and wide area networks [WANs]) that

experience service interruptions that cause an impact to an

indefinite number of end users.

Unauthorized access to data when in transmission over

communications media.

Loss of system availability affecting the ability of users

to perform the functions required to carry out day-to-day

responsibilities.

Root-level attacks on networking infrastructure, critical

systems, or large, multi-purpose, or dedicated servers.

Compromise (or disclosure of account access information) of

privileged accounts on computer systems.

Compromise (or disclosure of account access information) of

individual user accounts or desktop (single-user) systems.

Denial-of-service attacks on networking infrastructure and

systems.

Attacks launched on others from within organizational

boundaries or systems.

Scans of internal organizational systems originating from

the Internet or from within the organizational boundaries.

Any criminal act that may have been committed using

organizational systems or resources.

Disclosure of protected data, including paper disclosure,

email release, or inadvertent posting of data on a web site.

Suspected information-technology policy violation.

A Reportable Event may be the result of an isolated event

or a series of occurrences. Reportable Events under these

procedures include events that occur at CMS federal sites,

contractor/subcontractor sites/systems, consultants, vendors

or agents. If the Reportable Event results in an overpayment

relating to either Trust Fund payments or administrative

costs, the report must describe the overpayment with as much

specificity as possible, as of the time of the due date for

the submission of the report.

Security events that may consist of an observable

occurrence in a network or system (e.g., detected probes,

infections prevented, log reviews, etc.), that do not

threaten system integrity, are not considered Reportable

Events unless they may be reasonably associated with other

incidents, Reportable Events, or breaches. CMS categorizes

these events in a monthly report to the Department of Health

and Human Services (HHS) (hereafter referred to as the

``Department'' or ``HHS'') Cybersecurity Program as follows:

Malicious Code Prevented: Viruses were prevented and did

not cause any harm to any system.

Probes and Reconnaissance Scans Detected: Probes and scans

were detected but did not pose a serious threat to a CMS

system.

Inappropriate Usage: Misuse of computing resources by an

otherwise authorized individual.

Other: Cannot be categorized under any of the above and do

not threaten system integrity.

There are many events that may be flagged as inappropriate

use of resources, but reflect situations that do not fall

under the definitions associated with incidents, Reportable

Events, or breaches. In such cases, reporting should be made

through applicable contractual resources, or through

appropriate Federal Fraud, Waste, and Abuse reporting

channels.

1.1.3 PRIVACY INFORMATION

Privacy is the right of an individual to control their own

personal information, and not have it disclosed or used by

others without permission. At CMS, we are charged with

protecting other people's private information--that of every

citizen (or legal resident) beneficiary utilizing benefits

the vast Medicare/Medicaid program, as well as many

subsidiary programs.

Confidentiality is the obligation of another party to

respect privacy by protecting personal information they

receive, and preventing it from being used or disclosed

without the subject's knowledge and permission.

Again, at CMS we are charged with protecting the

confidentiality of other people's citizen-beneficiary

information. A breach of that confidentiality is not simply a

failure of a ``technical control'', it is a basic failure of

CMS to meet its obligation to protect the individual citizen.

Moreover, unlike the banking industry where financial

compensation is a readily-available remedy to a breach,

private medical information cannot be simply replaced with

something of ``similar value'', or by simply closing an

account, and opening a new (better protected) one. Once a

privacy breach occurs, the ramifications can be far-reaching

and long lasting--with no readily available ``patch'' to undo

the damage (we cannot simply replace one violated health

record with a brand new one.)

Security is the means used to protect the confidentiality

of personal information through physical, technical, and

administrative safeguards.

Privacy is the ``business objective'' of security. The core

of the relationship between information security and

information privacy lies in the fact that security, or lack

of it, is the determinant of the level of privacy that a

system or infrastructure can assure. If there is a breach of

computer security, it has a corresponding negative effect on

the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the

information therein. Inadequate security leads directly to

loss of privacy. Therefore, if privacy is the ``business

objective'', then security is the ``functional requirements''

necessary for an IT system to meet those ``business

objectives''.

1.1.3.1 PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION (PII)

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is information

which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's

identity, such as their name, social security number,

biometric records, etc. alone, or when combined with other

personal or identifying information which is linked or

linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of

birth, mother's maiden name, etc. PII also includes

individually identifiable health information as defined by

the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

(HIPAA) of 1996, Privacy Rule (45 CFR Section 164.501. PII is

also often referred to as personally identifiable data or

individually identifiable information.

1.1.3.2. Protected Health Information (PHI)

Protected Health Information (PHI) is individually

identifiable health information held or transmitted by a

covered entity or its business associate, in any form or

media, whether electronic, paper, or oral.

Individually Identifiable Health Information is a subset of

health information, including demographic data collected

concerning an individual that:

Is created or received by a healthcare provider, health

plan, employer, or healthcare clearinghouse.

Relates to the past, present or future physical or mental

health or condition of an individual; the provision of

healthcare to an individual; or the past, present, or future

payment for the provision of healthcare to an individual, and

meets either of the following:

Identifies the individual.

There is a reasonable basis to believe the information can

be used to identify the individual.

The HIPAA Privacy Rule excludes from the definition of PHI

individually identifiable health information that is

maintained in education records covered by the Family

Educational Right and Privacy Act (as amended, 20 U.S.C.

1232g) and records described at 20 U.S.C. 1232g(a)(4)(B)(iv),

and employment records containing individually identifiable

health information that are held by a covered entity in its

role as an employer.

The HIPAA Privacy Rule covers PHI in any medium (including

paper) while the HIPAA Security Rule covers PHI in electronic

form (ePHI) only.

1.1.3.3 DE-IDENTIFIED HEALTH INFORMATION

With those definitions in place, what information (or data)

elements comprise PHI such that, if they were removed, the

above definition of individually identifiable health

information would not apply? The answer is in the HIPAA de-

identification use standard and its two implementation

specifications of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

There are no restrictions on the use or disclosure of de-

identified health information. De-identified health

information neither identifies nor provides a reasonable

basis to identify an individual. There are two specifications

for de-identifying individually identifiable health

information; either: 1) a formal determination by a qualified

statistician; or 2) the removal of specified identifiers of

the individual and of the individual's relatives, household

members, and employers is required, and is adequate only if

the covered entity has no actual knowledge that the remaining

information could be used to identify the individual.

The following identifiers of the individual or of

relatives, employers, or household members of the individual

must be removed to achieve the safe harbor method of de-

identification:

1. Names

2. All geographic subdivisions smaller than a State,

including street address, city, county, precinct, zip code,

and their equivalent geocodes, except for the initial three

digits of a zip code if, according to the current publicly

available data from the Bureau of Census:

a. The geographic units formed by combining all zip codes

with the same three initial digits contains more than 20,000

people.

b. The initial three digits of a zip code for all such

geographic units containing 20,000 or fewer people is changed

to 000.

3. All elements of dates (except year) for dates directly

related to the individual, including birth date, admission

date, discharge date, date of death; and all ages over 89 and

all elements of dates (including year) indicative of such

age, except that such ages and elements may be aggregated

into a single category of age 90 or older.

4. Telephone numbers

5. Fax numbers

6. Electronic mail addresses

7. Social security numbers

8. Medical record numbers

9. Health plan beneficiary numbers

10. Account numbers

11. Certificate/license numbers

12. Vehicle identifiers and serial numbers, including

license plate numbers

13. Device identifiers and serial numbers

14. Web Universal Resource Locators (URLs)

15. Internet Protocol (IP) address numbers

16. Biometric identifiers, including finger and voiceprints

17. Full face photographic images and any comparable

images.

18. Any other unique identifying number, characteristic, or

code, except as permitted for re-identification purposes

provided certain conditions are met

In addition to the removal of the above-stated identifiers,

the covered entity may not have actual knowledge that the

remaining information could be used alone or in combination

with any other information to identify an individual who is

subject of the information.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

First of all, Mr. Speaker, I want to point out that Republicans are using

out-of-context quotes from an administration, or from administration officials, to mislead the public about the security of healthcare.gov, the Web site.

The same official they keep quoting went on to say:

The added protections that we have put into place are best

practices above and beyond what is usually recommended. And

no Web site is 100 percent secure. But this effort to scare

people from signing up for coverage is simply wrong.

Mr. Speaker, I am afraid the bill before the House today is simply an effort by Republicans to continue to impede the efforts of implementing the Affordable Care Act by instilling misinformation and fear in the American public. It is an egregious bill that would, in my opinion--let me point this out, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, I was in the Rules Committee, and I pointed out that, to some extent, I was pleased, I guess, that I don't see the Republicans actually coming to the floor today to act on another repeal or outright repeal of the Affordable Care Act. I mean, we are not seeing that. We didn't see it in Rules. And hopefully, I will say to my colleague, the chairman of the Health Subcommittee, that we don't see it again, either in the committee, in Rules, or on the floor.

So maybe there is some progress here, and at least the Republicans are not out there trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act anymore--at least I hope so.

But they are now moving to these other methods of trying to put fear in the public so that they don't sign up or they don't go on the Web site. And the fact of the matter is that these security measures that they are talking about are addressing a reality that is not there.

Do I think that security measures are critical for the Web site?

Yes, absolutely. But let's recap the last few years since the ACA passed. Republicans claim the ACA kills jobs; but since the law has passed, we have added nearly 8 million jobs.

Republicans claim that the ACA causes health costs to increase, but the last 4 years we have seen the slowest health care cost growth in 50 years.

Republicans claim we need to address the deficit; yet they repeal the law at every turn, which increases the deficit by over $1.5 trillion.

Well, now they say that healthcare.gov is going to result in widespread breaches of people's personal information, and that is simply not true. There have been no successful security attacks on healthcare.gov, and no one has maliciously accessed personal information.

No Web site, public or private, is 100 percent secure, but healthcare.gov is subject to strict security standards. It is constantly monitored and tested, and its security and privacy protections go beyond Federal IT standards.

And the Health and Human Services Department has standards in place, just like every other government agency, to notify individuals if their personal information is breached.

So, Mr. Speaker, it is important that I note for everyone that House Democrats have always previously supported legislation to require consumer notification in the event of a breach of government and private sector computer systems. We still do.

By expressing concern for the mockery of this bill, it does not mean that I don't support requiring the administration to notify individuals of breaches of their information, but this not is a serious effort to strengthen privacy laws or to strengthen the health care Web site.

The Republican strategy is to scare people away from going to the Web site and signing up for health care, and I urge Members and the American public, do not be fooled by what they are doing.

It is a good thing that they are not seeking to outright repeal the Affordable Care Act anymore, at least that appears to be the case, based on what happened in Rules the other night. But that doesn't mean that they are not going to continue with these efforts to try to make hay over security and other matters.

And I can't stress enough that every one of the scare tactics they use, whether it is saying that the ACA is going to increase the deficit, which it doesn't, it actually decreases the deficit; or whether they say that it is going to increase health costs, which we know it doesn't, it actually decreases health costs.

This is just another one of those scare tactics. And I just hope that my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, are not fooled by this.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Colorado.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

I yield the gentleman from Maryland an additional 1 minute.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, Republicans continue to attack the Web site, www.healthcare .gov, and this attack on the security of the Web site is just the latest in a long line of scare tactics attempting to limit enrollment and coverage under the ACA.

It just bothers me so much because, as you know now, we have about 6 million people who have obtained coverage, 2.1 million receive private insurance through the Web site, and things really are moving now in terms of more and more people signing up and getting coverage.

I just wish that, rather than using scare tactics and trying to talk about security concerns that don't exist, they would focus and work with us at actually trying to sign people up to get people to have health insurance, which is the goal, of course, of the Affordable Care Act.

The bill suggests that there are serious security problems with www.healthcare.gov, but this unique requirement doesn't apply to other government Web sites or to private Web sites. Under the bill, HHS is required to notify individuals within 2 business days if their personally identifiable information is known to be stolen or unlawfully accessed from a marketplace computer system. If this is a good idea, then why is the GOP bill limiting this requirement to only marketplace Web sites? It is just a missed opportunity.

Democrats firmly support strong data security and breach notification legislation. If the Republicans were serious about the security of personally identifiable information on the Web, instead of bringing up this bill, they could have reached out to Democrats and developed a bipartisan bill.

Indeed, when Democrats were in the majority, the Democrat-run House passed bipartisan legislation to provide for consumer notification in the event of a breach, which was introduced in the previous Congress. And the Republicans are still playing political games. If they want to work with us to bring to the floor serious bipartisan data security breach notification legislation, then they should simply do it.

In the Rules Committee the other day, one of the members asked, on the Republican side, if the administration has a position on the bill. And the administration clearly opposes the bill. They put out an SAP which states:

The Administration believes Americans' personally

identifiable information should be protected wherever it

resides, and that all Americans deserve to know if that

information has been improperly exposed . . . The Federal

Government has already put in place an effective and

efficient system for securing personally identifiable

information in the Health Insurance Marketplaces.

So they oppose the passage of this bill.

I just wish I could convince my colleagues--again, I am happy that this is not an outright repeal and that we are not wasting time on that, but we are still wasting time with this notion of the security breach that hasn't happened when security measures are already in place.

Again, this is being brought up in the first week we are back with no effort to reach out to us in any way to try to deal with this. It has a 2-day notification requirement, which is simply not workable.

I cannot stress enough that we, as Democrats, would like to address this issue, but it is not being addressed. It is just being done as a way of trying to scare the public from signing up on the Web site, which is so unfortunate because people want to sign up. They shouldn't be in fear that, if they sign up, somehow there is going to be a security breach.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman), ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to Mr. Waxman.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley), the vice chair of the Democratic Caucus.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Sheila Jackson Lee).

I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, once again I hear my colleagues on the other side repeating the same things that are not accurate. You do not have to go on healthcare.gov to sign up for health insurance. Mr. Waxman said you can go to a private insurance broker or call an 800 number. You can go through various nonprofits. They keep repeating the same thing, and we keep having to say that there have been no breaches.

The gentleman mentioned the administration. The administration statement, which I read before and I will only summarize part of it now, it says that the Federal Government has already put in place an effective and efficient system for securing personally identifiable information in the health insurance marketplace. The administration opposes the bill because it would create unrealistic and costly paperwork requirements that do not improve the safety or security of personally identifiable information in the health insurance marketplace. The purpose of the bill I understand; but it is simply not necessary, and it is just making people fearful of signing up.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to say, again, I am not saying that I am opposed to some kind of security notification. In fact, it already exists and there is a protocol in place with the Department of Health and Human Services. The point is that this Republican bill is simply not necessary. That security already exists.

The fact of the matter is there have not been any security breaches. Once again, we are simply seeing the Republicans get up and try to scare people so that they don't go and use healthcare.gov, the Web site.

What we would really like to see, Mr. Speaker, is the day when, on both sides of the aisle here, we can simply get up and talk about legislation that continues to provide outreach and encourage people to sign up for the Web site and get the health insurance that they need. I still honestly believe that most Republicans and Democrats collectively would like to see most Americans covered with health insurance. That was the purpose of the Affordable Care Act.

I think my one optimistic note today could be at least we are not seeing another bill on the floor that would seek to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Hopefully, that is some recognition on the Republican side that the Affordable

Care Act is actually accomplishing its goal of trying to cover most Americans, if not all Americans.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this unnecessary bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 3811.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 455, I call up the bill (H.R. 3811) to require notification of individuals of breaches of personally identifiable information through Exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, in the days leading up to Christmas, hackers stole millions of credit card numbers from the servers of retail giant Target. I imagine that at least a few here in this Chamber may have had their own credit cards replaced to prevent theft.

What if Target had not bothered to tell anyone?

What if they had waited until people noticed fraudulent charges popping up on their statements? The damage would certainly be worse.

It may shock some people to learn that there is no legal requirement that the Department of Health and Human Services notify an individual if his or her personal information is breached or improperly accessed through the Affordable Care Act's exchanges.

While HHS has said that it will notify individuals in such a case, the American people have a right to know that their government is required by law to contact them if their personal information is compromised.

H.R. 3811, the Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act, would simply ensure Americans receive notification from HHS when their personally identifiable information has been compromised through the exchanges. Specifically, the bill requires HHS to notify individuals no later than two business days after discovery of a breach of an exchange system.

Since the disastrous rollout of the healthcare.gov Web site, congressional oversight has uncovered that end-to-end security testing of healthcare.gov did not occur before the October 1 launch, and that high-ranking administration officials were told of the security risks before the Web site went live.

Teresa Fryer, the chief information security officer for the agency running the exchange system, even stated in a draft memo that the Federal exchange ``does not reasonably meet security requirements'' and ``there is also no confidence that personal identifiable information will be protected.''

A recent article in Information Week discussed a report released by Experian entitled ``2014 Data Breach Industry Forecast,'' which stated that ``the health care industry, by far, will be the most susceptible to publicly disclosed and widely scrutinized data breaches in 2014.''

According to Information Week, the author of the study said he is basing this prediction at least partly on reports of security risks posted by the healthcare.gov Web site and the health insurance exchanges established by various States. The Web infrastructure to support health insurance reform was ``put together too quickly and haphazardly.''

The most glaring problem for these sites has been their inability to keep up with consumer demand. The organizational infrastructure behind the implementation of ObamaCare is also complex, meaning that many parties have access to the personal data and could misuse or mishandle it.

So we have volume issues, security issues, multiple data

handling points, all generally not good things for protecting

protected health information and personal identity

information.

Given the lack of security testing and the risk associated with healthcare.gov, and the administration's repeated misrepresentation of the Web site's readiness and functionality, H.R. 3811 is a reasonable step to ensure Federal officials are required to notify individuals in case of a breach.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa), the distinguished chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased, at this time, to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlelady from Tennessee (Mrs. Black), who is an expert on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California, Kevin McCarthy, the distinguished whip of the House.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), a distinguished member of the Health Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia, Eric Cantor, our distinguished majority leader.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), the distinguished chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire of the time remaining.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), the vice chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), the distinguished chairman of the Republican Study Committee and a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Gardner).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan).

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from Kansas (Ms. Jenkins), the distinguished secretary of our caucus.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from Indiana (Mrs. Walorski).

Mr. Speaker, we are prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, some have argued that requiring HHS to report a data breach that is known to have resulted in a loss of personal identifiable information within 2 days is too burdensome for the Department. In fact, the administration opposes this legislation for ``paperwork requirements.''

I am frankly shocked that any Member of this body would put workload concerns of HHS ahead of their constituents' right to know if their data has been breached when many of our constituents are essentially being forced to shop through these exchanges.

In addition, CMS has stated that States and other nonexchange entities are required to report data breaches to the Department within 1 hour to HHS. If HHS believes 1 hour is enough time to report, then they should certainly be able to tell our constituents within 2 days after knowing an individual's information was breached through an exchange.

Our constituents deserve to know if their personal information has been breached. That is all the underlying bill requires. Our constituents have a right to know. They should have peace of mind, and we should be protecting them, the victims, not the bureaucracy.

I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense, important bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 3527, the Poison Center Network Act.

Mr. Speaker, this important legislation, which passed the Energy and Commerce Committee by unanimous consent in December, reauthorizes the national toll-free phone number, media campaign, and grant program which have helped make poison centers an incredibly successful program.

First passed in 2000, national poison center legislation was championed by our current Energy and Commerce Committee chairman, Mr. Upton, and our former colleague, Ed Towns. Since then, the national poison center legislation has been reauthorized twice, and I am proud to say it remains a very bipartisan product.

Chairman Terry, thank you for your leadership on this issue over the years and your hard work on this reauthorization. This is a good, bipartisan bill, and I am pleased to have had the opportunity to work on it with you.

Poison exposure is a leading cause of unintentional injuries in the United States, and it was the second leading cause of unintentional injury deaths in 2010. According to a recent Lewin Group report, poisonings accounted for over 2.1 million emergency room visits and 438,000 hospitalizations in the year 2009 alone. I think most of us with children remember either having a magnet on our refrigerator or a sticker on our phone providing the contact information for the poison center in our area.

The experts that staff our Nation's network of 56 poison centers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. In 2012, poison centers handled, on average, 9,200 cases per day for a total of almost 3.4 million cases over the course of the year. Over 90 percent of calls into poison centers were due to a poison exposure in someone's home, and approximately half of all cases involved children under the age of 6 who were exposed to toxins in their home.

In my home State of New York, we have two poison centers that, between the two of them, field over 164,000 calls per year. The New York City poison center found that 88 percent of all exposures to a dangerous substance occurred within someone's own residence. Many of these calls were related to the accidental ingestion of various cleaning products or detergents, but in 2012, the New York City poison center also fielded over 2,000 calls regarding prescription painkillers.

For the upstate New York poison center in 2012, 85 percent of calls were related to unintentional poisonings, 62 percent involved children under the age of 5, and, most importantly, 82 percent of cases could be managed over the phone and did not require a visit to a doctor or a hospital if hospitalization is necessary.

In 2011, poison centers helped avoid an estimated 1.7 million unnecessary health care visits and have been shown to decrease the amount of time an individual spends in the hospital. While a visit to the emergency room can cost hundreds of dollars, and a hospitalization can cost thousands, a phone call to a poison center only costs around $30, which shows poison centers continue to be a smart public health investment.

I think it is also important to note that poison centers are an incredibly valuable resource to health care providers. Poison centers provide access to board-certified medical toxicologists which can assist with the triage, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with known or suspected poisoning.

Poison centers are a true partnership between Federal, State, and local governments, as well as in the private sector. In 2011, poison centers obtained only 13 percent of their funding from Federal grants, while 62 percent came from State and local government and 25 percent from private funders like hospitals and insurers. Adequate funding from all sources is important in order to continue to provide high-quality experts and services in the name of poison prevention for our constituents.

Mr. Speaker, by all accounts, poison centers have been an incredible success and a program that we should all be proud to be a part of. In addition to my gratitude towards Mr. Terry, I would also again like to thank Chairman Upton for his leadership on this issue, as well as Ranking Member Waxman, Chairman Pitts, and Ranking Member Pallone for their assistance in bringing this bill, first, before the Energy and Commerce Committee and to the floor today.

As the lead Democrat on this bipartisan legislation, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I have no further speakers, Mr. Speaker, so I yield back the balance of my time.

The previous speaker in this debate said that we don't know how many times there was a breach of security on the health care Web site. Well, we do know how many breaches of security there were, how many successful attacks there were--zero. There have been no successful breaches of healthcare.gov.

Mr. Speaker, since October 1, more than 6 million Americans have signed up for health insurance--6 million. Four million are enrolled in Medicaid, 2 million in private coverage. Any way you look at it, that is good news.

Now Republicans seem eager to find some bad news. They want to keep talking about Web site problems and stir up phony fears that personal information is not secure on this site. They are looking for the bad news because the facts are against them.

Republicans said the Affordable Care Act would kill jobs. We hear it over and over again--kill jobs. Since the law was passed, we have added nearly 8 million jobs. Republicans said this law

would cause health care costs to skyrocket, but we have had 4 straight years of the slowest health care cost growth in 50 years. Republicans said the ACA would explode the deficit, but repealing the law, which they have tried to do over 40 times on the floor, would increase the deficit by over $1.5 trillion.

So, today, House Republicans are resorting to scare tactics. They are bringing up a poorly thought-out bill based on the false premise that healthcare.gov is not secure. The truth is--I will say it again--there have been no successful security attacks on healthcare.gov.

Now, while no site, public or private, is 100 percent secure, healthcare.gov is subject to strict security standards, it is constantly monitored and tested, and it has procedures in place to notify consumers in the event of a breach. We can't say the same thing for private Web sites. We all heard about Target having their Web site attacked successfully. No one is asking that they make disclosures.

In fact, Mr. Speaker, this is not a serious attempt to address this issue because it doesn't set any standards on private insurance companies. Private insurance companies hold far more private data than the exchanges.

Mr. Speaker, as chairman, I worked on bipartisan legislation to set tough data privacy and security standards on government and private sector computer systems. House Democrats have supported these efforts, but this bill is not serious. Did you know this bill was never even considered in committee? It doesn't allow for any delay in reporting to protect ongoing law enforcement investigations. The bill creates a host of technical and administrative problems.

This is purely a message bill. That is all we do these days. In between recesses, we have message bills on the floor of the House, and we get nothing done. This is purely a message bill, and the message is one that is designed to mislead. I urge a ``no'' vote.

Well, thank you for yielding. I am not going to take that much time, but I do want to respond to the comments that were just made on the House floor.

No one is forced to go on this Web site. No one is forced to buy their insurance by going on the Web site. They could go to brokers. Once you sign up for insurance, whether it is public or private, your information is in their Web. It is in their computer system. That is true for private insurance. Does this bill do anything about breaches of private insurance? No.

Now, the majority leader used a quote from someone in the administration, I think, to mislead the public about the security of healthcare.gov, but that same official said at the end of that quote, The added protections that we have put into place are best practices above and beyond what is usually recommended.

No Web site is 100 percent secure, but this effort to scare people from signing up for coverage is wrong. If we do care about breaches in security, it ought to apply to private and public insurance, not just when you sign up, but when they hold your data.