Sponsors (5)
The bill extends strong, permanent identity‑protection and high‑value insurance for breach victims and promotes agency adoption of privacy tools, but does so at the risk of substantial new government spending, budgetary strain, and administrative complexities that could produce uneven access.
Federal employees and other individuals affected by federal data breaches gain lifetime identity protection eligibility (the authority is made permanent), ensuring ongoing access to remediation services after a breach.
Breach-affected individuals receive at least $5,000,000 in identity theft insurance, providing strong financial protection against fraud, liability, and remediation costs.
Federal employees and contractor staff can be reimbursed up to 100% for privacy‑enhancing tools, reducing their out‑of‑pocket costs for technology that lowers privacy and security risks.
Taxpayers could face substantially higher costs and increased government liability because agencies must provide lifelong coverage and purchase/maintain large insurance policies to meet the new minimums.
Agencies may experience budgetary strain—lifelong coverage, $5M policy minimums, and expanded reimbursement authority could force agencies to divert funds from personnel, programs, or other services.
A broad, technology‑neutral definition of 'privacy‑enhancing service' risks reimbursements for products with marginal privacy benefits, increasing spending without clear safeguards or accountability.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Makes lifetime identity-protection benefits permanent with a $5,000,000 minimum identity-theft insurance and allows agency reimbursements for privacy-enhancing services from S&E funds starting FY2026.
Official title: To amend the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 to extend the availability of identity protection coverage to individuals whose personally identifiable information was compromised during recent data breaches at Federal agencies, and for other purposes.
Introduced August 3, 2026 by Eleanor Holmes Norton · Last progress August 3, 2026
Makes permanent certain identity-protection benefits for people affected by Federal agency data breaches, requires a minimum $5,000,000 identity theft insurance policy, and ensures identity protection coverage lasts for the remainder of an affected individual's life. Also allows federal agencies, beginning in FY2026, to use existing salaries-and-expenses funds to reimburse employees (and contractor employers to reimburse contractor employees who support the agency) up to 100% for documented costs of privacy-enhancing services and tools.