Senator Tammy Baldwin (above) is a US Senator from Wisconsin. Her office issued the following last week.
For Immediate Release
Friday, November 06, 2015
Baldwin, Blumenthal Call for VA Inspector General Investigation into Security of Veterans’ Personal Information
WASHINGTON, DC
– U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, a member of the Senate Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs
Committee (HSGAC) and the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs
Appropriations Subcommittee, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, Ranking
Member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs,
have
called for a formal investigation by the Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA)
Office of Inspector General (OIG) into whether adequate safeguards are
in place within the VA to protect veterans’ personal information.
This request was prompted by an April
2015 incident in which a State employee at the Wisconsin Department of
Veterans Affairs (WDVA) sent veterans’ personally identifiable
information (PII)
to an unintended and unauthorized recipient over the Department of
Veterans Affairs’ email system. Shortly thereafter, Senator Baldwin’s
office reached out to the VA OIG to explore whether there was cause for
them to review the incident in Wisconsin. At that
time, the VA OIG stated there was no nexus for them to review an
incident that appeared to wholly involve a state entity.
However, in their letter, Senators
Baldwin and Blumenthal argue there is indeed a federal nexus given that
the WDVA—when transmitting veterans’ information—utilizes VA systems,
including software
and email servers, which include tools to protect veterans’ PII from
unintended disclosure. Despite these safeguards the accidental
disclosure in Wisconsin still occurred.
“While this particular incident occurred
in Wisconsin, we believe the issue is one of national importance and
request that you conduct a system-wide review of the Department’s
practice,”
the Senators wrote.
Senators Baldwin and Blumenthal also
sent a letter to VA Secretary Robert McDonald
requesting information from the Secretary on the process by which VA
shares information with non-Agency personnel for purposes of assisting
veterans with their claims for service-connection of disabilities. In
that letter the Senators request information on
how PII is safeguarded on the VA’s e-mail system from inappropriate or
accidental disclosure from the VA to a third-party, such as a state
department of veterans affairs, or from the third-party to another
individual.
An online version of this release can be found
here.
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