Former Vice President Protection Act of 2008

FORMER VICE PRESIDENT PROTECTION ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - September 15, 2008)

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

Mr. Speaker, this bill is being returned to us from the Senate with an additional title added. The House of Representatives passed the Former Vice President Protection Act of 2008 under suspension of the rules in June, as a much-needed permanent solution to reauthorize the protection of former Vice Presidents and their families.

As amended by the Senate, the bill now also includes a new title addressing the problem of cybercrime. These additional provisions provide needed tools to law enforcement to address the growing and evolving crime of identity theft, as well as other types of cybercrimes in several critical aspects.

First, the bill allows victims of identity theft to seek restitution in Federal court for the loss of time and money spent restoring their credit and remedying the harm caused by this crime. This helps ensure that identity-theft victims will be made whole financially.

Second, the bill updates criminal laws with respect to identity theft schemes so that they reflect current technologies, and can therefore better respond to the sophisticated aspects of these crimes. For example, to address the increasing number of computer hacking crimes that involve computers that may be located within the same State, the bill removes the current proof requirement that a computer's information must be stolen through an interstate or international communication. The fact that you are using Internet will still satisfy the interstate commerce requirements of the Constitution.

In addition, the bill addresses the increasing number of attacks on multiple computers by making it a felony to employ spyware to damage 10 or more computers. The new tools provided in this bill should be of significant help to law enforcement in providing a more effective deterrent against identity theft and other computer crimes.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, to agree to the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, this bill will allow the protection of former Vice Presidents, and as the gentleman from California has indicated, the Senate under their rules, not our rules, has added another provision, an important provision, that apparently there is no controversy on addressing the problem of cyber crime. I would hope that we would accept the Senate amendment and pass the bill.

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