Congress proposes lifetime identity protection for OPM breach victims

Senate leaders plan to introduce the RECOVER PII Act, which would extend identity-theft protection for the rest of life to those affected by the Office of Personnel Management data breaches.

Legislation titled the RECOVER PII Act is set to be introduced by Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton to secure lifelong identity-theft protection for roughly 22.1 million federal workers, contractors and their families whose data were compromised in the 2015 OPM breaches. The current program, MyIDCare, is slated to end on Sept. 30, ten years after each individual's enrollment, prompting concerns that stolen personal information remains exploitable.

The proposed bill would eliminate the ten-year cap, retain at least $5 million in identity-theft insurance, and permit agencies to fund privacy tools from their salary-and-expense budgets. Senators Tim Kaine, Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen have joined as co-sponsors. The measure follows GAO warnings that foreign intelligence services could leverage the stolen records for years, especially as affected individuals move into more sensitive roles. Previous attempts to secure permanent protection have failed, making this effort a critical test of congressional resolve to safeguard federal personnel.