Schakowsky Letter to Sec. Rice on Passport Security Breach

SCHAKOWSKY LETTER TO SEC. RICE ON PASSPORT SECURITY BREACH

Washington, D.C.–U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) sent the following letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today about the passport security breaches of U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL), Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and John McCain (R-AZ).

March 21, 2008

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW.
Washington, D.C. 20520

Dear Madame Secretary:

I am writing to request answers to the following questions as part of your investigation into the security breach involving the passport files of U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL), Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and John McCain (R-AZ). I am extremely concerned that private contractors working for the U.S. Department of State violated the Senators' privacy and broke the law by accessing their passport files.

According to the latest news reports, the State Department employees who were responsible for overseeing contractors failed to notify their supervisors of any of those security breaches until months after the initial violation. The failure to report and respond immediately to any of those incidents allowed the violations to continue until as recently as last Friday, March 14, 2008.

As part of the investigation, I would like to answers to the following questions immediately:

• Why did the State Department rely on contract employees to handle sensitive information?
• Are contract employees still being used for this purpose?
• When did the State Department employees first report these incidents to their supervisors?
• What were the reasons for any delay in reporting?
• What action, if any, did the supervisors take once the violations were reported?
• Did anyone in the State Department authorize these security breaches?
• What companies employ the contractors who were involved in these security breaches?
• Was this confidential information shared with individuals outside the State Department?
• Were passport files of other elected officials or candidates accessed by these contractors?
• What personal and confidential information was accessed?

These security breaches may have put individuals and their families in danger by exposing their confidential information to State Department contractors who were not authorized to view that information. These incidents not only violate existing privacy laws, but they also call into question the State Department's ability to properly handle confidential information. Every U.S. citizen should be alarmed by this security breach because their personal information, including Social Security number, date of birth, and home address could also be compromised.

I look forward to working with you to ensure that contractors do not gain access to private information in the future and look forward to your prompt reply.

Sincerely,

Jan Schakowsky
Member of Congress