Bill to strengthen HIPAA would strip PII from military graves, memorials
CAPITOL HILL, Washington, DC— A House subcommittee will begin deliberations next week over a data security bill that could force the VA to delete personally identifiable information (PII) from military headstones and memorials, officials confirm.
The Subcommittee on Health is scheduled to review bipartisan House Resolution 6764, the Service Member Privacy and Caregiver Awareness Act. “We have a duty to protect service members’ personally identifiable information,” VA press secretary Terrence Hayes told reporters yesterday in an online press conference. “Here, Congress is worried about the rise in identity theft of deceased persons for financial fraud.”
“This bill would bring us into compliance with ‘HIPAA,’ the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996,” said Hayes. “The VA is the only cabinet-level agency that cares for its patients forever, and I want you to put that word in italics.”
The bill’s wording directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to obtain written consent authorizing public release of PII such as full name, dates of birth and death, and religious preference (excluding atheists) from all service members or their estates “[n]ot later than one year after the date of the enactment.”
After one year, the VA would begin removing PII from publicly accessible databases, grave markers, and national memorials to protect service members’ privacy. “Just modifying or replacing headstones would be the most expensive project we’ve undertaken so we may just remove them and stack them somewhere secure. I mean people will still generally know where their loved ones are,” said the press secretary.
Ambiguous wording in the bill could deem awards & decorations as PII. “For example,” said Hayes, “if the deceased is buried in a civilian graveyard where he or she is the only recipient of a Silver Star or Purple Heart or National Defense Service Medal, can we allow it on a bronze marker? That’s a real question.”
Hayes said experts at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) are concerned that H.R. 6764 may receive the same bipartisan support that led to the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which cost the Postal Service $64 billion in its first ten years.
Hayes told reporters the CBO experts are struggling to estimate costs to expunge personal data from gravestones, bronze markers, and the Vietnam Memorial Wall. “We anticipate a major bulk discount for stones and carving,” said Hayes, “but we’re still looking at tens of billions of dollars.”
U.S. graveyards in other countries would be hardest hit, CBO experts told Hayes. “Our WWI and WWII cemeteries in France inurn 67,628 Americans who saved that country twice from tyranny,” the press secretary said with a solemn voice. “French officials impose strict ruban rouge (red tape) on modifications to graves, which could double or triple our costs.”
Hayes told reporters, “The VA also maintains cemeteries in England, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy, Panama, the Philippines, Mexico, and Tunisia. Many of those headstones would be purged of PII if the bill becomes law.”
Hayes turned over the microphone to Eddie Thomas, director of the National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics. “If the bill is signed,” he said, “we will immediately shut down our ‘find a grave’ phone app. My folks would then sanitize databases so only authorized loved ones can find a service member’s data-masked grave in a field of nameless headstones.”
The director assured reporters, “If we go this route, our revised software will still roll out better than the Obamacare website fiasco.”
Robin Berger is a retired Air Force NCO who shops at the commissary every month as required by law.