Congress trying to pass a bill to prevent states from allowing you to freeze your credit.
This entire post was lifted from ClarkHoward.com – I could not find a way to link to this specific article, and I felt it to be important, so I posted it in it's entirety. Please visit Clark's site, as he deserves the revenue/recognition for his work.
Contact your reps over credit freezes
Identity theft is a traumatic thing. Whether you have had your information stolen or – in the worst cases – have been hauled off to jail and falsely accused, ID thieves are victimizing millions. Clark has a bit of good news in the midst of the bad. Florida is the latest state to give its citizens a credit freeze protection law. There are now 23 states that allow you to do this and the number keeps growing higher. Six states require that you have already been a victim to be able to freeze your credit, but it's still better than nothing. They are Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, South Dakota, Washington and Texas. For a complete list of all states that allow citizens to freeze their credit, click here. That is great news because it means that about 70 percent of American citizens are in control of their credit and can protect themselves. But there is black cloud hovering above this silver lining. Some Congressmen and women are trying to get a bill passed into law that will essentially invalidate all of these state laws. It's clearly a bill drafted on behalf of the credit bureaus and banks, and it will re-expose citizens to one of the worst crimes ever to hit us. Clark wants you to voice your opinion loud and clear on this issue if you want to keep control of your own credit. Contact your federal representatives by entering your information on this site. Remember to be polite to the people who answer the phone. They are not the ones writing these bills. Speak your mind!
consumersunion.org – credit freeze laws by state.
June 20th, 2006
My representative is going to tire of hearnig from me. I’ve lost count of how many notes I’ve sent the past year or two.
For what it is worth, I have written to all my state and federal representatives at least once this year. The only representative who has bothered to reply, and at that in a manner indicating my note was read, has been Senator Saxby Chambliss. I’ve also written to other members of the Georgia delegation to The House Of Representatives, and to other states’ senators. Senator Chambliss was safely non-comittal but it was clear that my note had been read and its subject was addressed in the reply. The last time I received a reply was at least 10 years ago when I happened to see a speech given by Texas Representative Henry Gonzales. He was giving a "special orders" speech to a nearly empty chamber televised on C-SPAN which caught my attention. It regarded foreign policy and was a very thoughtful piece of work. I wrote him a letter as many members at that time had no e-mail. I received a hand written reply from him addressing some of my points. I was floored, especially because he had no political reason to reply to me since I was a resident of Alabama at the time.
June 21st, 2006
While not particularly prompt, I finally received a reply from my other senator, Senator Johnny Isakson, regarding net neutrality. I thought his respone, while slow in coming, was worth acknowledging.