Transcript Slide 1

Access to Vital Records Is Under Attack!
How Can You Help?
8 May 2014
Richmond, VA
Greater Richmond Convention Center
Room B15B
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Agenda
• Jan Alpert, RPAC Chair
• About RPAC
• Three Year Restriction to SSDI
• Certification of Forensic Genealogists
• Jan Meisels Allen, Chairperson, IAJGS Pubic Records Access Monitoring
Committee
• 2011 Revision Model Vital Statistics Act
• 2014 Examples of State Vital Records Legislation
• Fred Moss, Counsel for FGS
• Continuing Efforts with the Department of Commerce
• Know Your Legislators
• Congressional Recess: Make Your Voice Heard
• Q&A
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About RPAC
• Joint Committee of FGS, NGS, and IAJGS
• Participating organizations: APG, ASG, BCG,
and ICAPGen.
• Other participants: Ancestry & ProQuest
• State Liaisons (31 of the 50 states currently
represented)
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Records Preservation & Access Committee
Participants
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Jan Alpert, Chair (SC)
Josh Taylor, FGS (CA)
Fred Moss, FGS (TX)
David Rencher, FGS (UT)
Curt Witcher, FGS (IN)
Linda McCleary, FGS (AZ)
Joy Reisinger, FGS (WI)
Barbara Mathews, BCG (MA)
Roger D. Joslyn, ASG (NY)
Linda Gulbrandsen, ICAPGEN
(UT)
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Jan Meisels Allen, IAJGS (CA)
Ken Ryesky, IAJGS (NY)
Jordan Jones, NGS, (NC)
Donn Devine, NGS (DE)
Darrell Jackson, NGS (MO)
Kelvin Meyers, APG (TX)
Alvie Davidson, APG (FL)
Lou Szucs, Ancestry (IL)
Bill Forsyth, ProQuest (MI)
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RPAC Mission
• Advocate open access to vital records
• Support strong preservation policies & practices
• Advise community about federal, state, and
sometimes local regulations and legislation
• Coordinate genealogical community response
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How RPAC Works
• Meetings—FGS & NGS Conferences
• Monthly evening conference call—First Thursday
each month
• Presentations 2013 at NGS, IAJGS & FGS
• RPAC Blog at http://www.FGS.org/rpac
• RPAC email list
• State Liaisons conference calls and mailing list
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RPAC Blog
http://www.fgs.org/rpac/
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RPAC Blog
http://www.fgs.org/rpac/publications
Copies available RPAC Booth # 105
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RPAC Blog
http://www.fgs.org/rpac/publications
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How We Hear About Threats
• Members of RPAC committee
• Participating organizations in RPAC
• State Liaisons
• Genealogy Blogs
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How RPAC Responds to Threats
• RPAC supports and assists local genealogy
groups and state liaisons
• Monitors bills as the legislation progresses
• Communicates threats and bill status
• Prepares written statements for key
committee hearings
• Posts sample letters to legislators
• Talking Points for visits with your legislators
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State Liaisons—How Selected
• Normally by state umbrella society
• Looking for volunteers interested in the political
process
• Who possibly worked in government affairs,
state, or local government
• If interested see me after this presentation
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State Liaison Roster
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Elizabeth Wells (AL)
Connie Bradbury (AK)
Linda McCleary (AZ)
Jan Davenport (AR)
Peggy Rossi (CA)
David Coward (CO)
Robert Rafford (CT)
Donn Devine (DE)
Frank Laurent (FL)
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Elizabeth Olson (GA)
Jeanie Lowe (IL)
Curt Witcher (IN)
Cynthia Hofmeister (LA)
Barbara Mathews (MA)
Helen Shaw (ME)
Cynthia Grostick (MI)
Nancy Waller Thomas (MO)
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Liaisons Needed
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Hawaii
Idaho
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Maryland
Minnesota
Mississippi
Montana
Nebraska
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New Hampshire
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Rhode Island
South Dakota
West Virginia
Wyoming
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Current Threats to Vital Records Access
• Closure of the SSDI record for three years from
person’s death.
• Model State Vital Statistics Act
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2013 Bipartisan Budget Act
• Passed both houses in December with no
amendments
• Signed by the President 26 December 2013
• Death Master File/SSDI closed for 3 years
beginning 26 March 2014
• Must be certified by the Department of
Commerce to access the DMF/SSDI during the
three year embargo period
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2013 Bipartisan Budget Act
• Hearing on 4 March 2014.
• Fred Moss, counsel for FGS testified
• 111 participated in person or via webcast
• Statements to Commerce 18 March 2014
• RPAC, IAJGS, FamilySearch, CAFG, and a handful
of genealogists filed statements.
• Statements also filed by insurance companies,
industry associations, banks or credit services,
pensions funds, and various service providers
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2013 Bipartisan Budget Act
• Statements requested certification for forensic
genealogists:
• Locating heirs for Dept. of Defense for
repatriation of war remains
• Identification of unclaimed persons for coroners
• Locating missing heirs for probate and others
• Tracing and tracking heritable medical conditions
• Repatriation of stolen art and artifacts
• Determining eligibility for tribal benefits
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Certification of Genealogists
• Two forensic genealogists certified in April
• Many have not applied because:
• Cost of certification $200
• Cost to access the data $995 per year minimum
• Limited data fields
• Audit and security requirements
• $1,000 fine if SSDI information disclosed to
anyone uncertified
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Certification of Genealogists
• Limited Data Fields
• First name, last name, date of birth, date of
death, Social Security Number
• Missing are:
• middle initial or middle name
• state of issue and
• where last payment was sent
• Important for genealogists to differentiate
individuals with the same name
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Certification of Genealogists
• More Important— these fields may be missing
from all future Social Security Admin. Data, even
the recent data before the 3 year embargo
• Fred Moss will provide the latest updates later in
this presentation
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Jan Meisels Allen
Member, RPAC
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access
Monitoring Committee
President, Jewish Genealogical Society
of the Conejo Valley and Ventura County
(JGSCV)
[email protected]
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Genealogists without records can’t do genealogy!
We are facing crises worldwide on access to vital records
Due to misunderstanding by those in power
about Identity Theft
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2011 Revision
Model State Vital Statistics Act
• Working group reported revision May 2011
• Restricts access to birth records for 125 years
• Restricts access to marriage or divorce records for 100 years
• Restricts access to death records for 75 years
• Restricts access to indices until the embargo dates
• Requires confidentiality restrictions on indices as well as
records
• April 2012 Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) put Model
Act “on hold”
• January 2013 HHS promulgates final regulation on privacy and
permits medical information on deceased to be released after
50 years less than revision act of 75 years
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Remember to Watch For Regulations Too
• Regulations are a way for state regulators to
require actions that are not in state law and to
“reinterpret” state laws
• NAPHSIS 2013 conference said since they did not
do well in legislatures in 2014 they will start
enacting Model Vital Records Act by regulation.
• We are already seeing movement on privacy
language for Maine Vital Records proposed
regulations following Model Act
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How can you help?
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Things to Do Now
• Find out when your state’s legislature begins and
ends. Many start in January- but the end dates
vary- some go year ‘round
• See:
http://www.statescape.com/Resources/Session
s/Sessions.aspx?h=&year=2014
• Identify your representatives, their contact
information, and make your selves known to
them
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What You and Your Society Can Do
• Invite your local legislators to a Society meeting
• Send all your legislators-federal, state, local your
blog/newsletter—remember you and your
society members are their constituents
• Stop into their local offices and get to know
them and their staffs
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Key Words to Look For In New Legislation
• Birth record
• Birth certificate
• Death record
• Death certificate
• Divorce record
• Marriage record
• Marriage certificate
• Still birth record
• Domestic partnership record-certificate
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Key Words Continued
• Vital records
• Public records
• State archives
• Model State Vital Statistics Act
• Vital statistics
• Social Security Number
• State registrar
• Disclosure of records
• Name of your state’s vital records regulatory agency
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Tool Kit
For
State Liaisons
See:
http://tinyurl.com/83q6t8m
Interview on Records Access
http://tinyurl.com/7tlpcbt
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State Liaison Meeting 20 Nov. 2013
• See slides on the RPAC Blog
http://www.fgs.org/rpac/publications currently
third from last bullet
• See slides #25-30; 34-38
• Terminology
• How a bill becomes a law
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Each Country and State Is Different
You need to know how your country or state writes
legislation
How a bill becomes a law
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How To Find Your State’s ?
“How A Bill Becomes A Law”
Google it!
www.google.com
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Virginia
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Every step on the
“How A Bill Becomes A Law”
is an opportunity to shape the
outcome…from the day it is introduced,
the hearings, going to the floor of the
legislature, to the desk. Take the
necessary steps at each opportunity!
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Write a Letter to the Committee(s)
Which Will Hear the Bill
• Who do you write?
• Committee Chairperson
• Committee Members
• Author of the Bill (may or may not be a member
of the committee)
• If the bill has passed?
• Write the Governor or President who will be
asked to sign the bill
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How To Find Out Where To Write
Go to www.IAJGS.org and
click on Legislation
Then on Legislative Websites
US State Legislative websites
US Congress
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North Carolina Legislature Page
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Get To Know Your Local Representatives
All politics are local!
Each Liaison and your society board member and others in your society
should get to know:
Your local State Representative
Your local State Senator
Your Federal Congressperson
Your US Senators
And their staffs!
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Keep Informed
You need to know what is going on
• Read online the capitol’s newspaper and key
political columnist
• Keep in touch with other genealogy societies to
know what they are doing
• Post updates on your society
website/blog/newsletter
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Examples of Key Political Columns
• Sacramento Bee-Capital Alert
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/
Politics
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Recent Vital Records Legislation
Texas (2013)
• Letter writing campaign by Texas genealogists made a
difference
• Died in committee
Oregon
• Passed (2013) with no change in embargo periods
• Limited access to the indices
Maine
• Law changed 2010.
• Researcher card to provide access to genealogists
• 2014 pending regulations incorporate some Model Act
provisions (to make the indices private) and access to hands
on records by genealogists
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Recent Vital Records Legislation Cont’d
• Oklahoma
• Legislation enacting Model Records Act embargos for
Birth (125 years) and Death records (75 years) signed by
Governor 1 May 2014.
• Pending Legislation merging OK Historical Society with
Dept of Tourism, History and Cultural Affairs
• California
• Proposition 42 on access to public records on June
primary ballot
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How is RPAC Responding?
• Genealogists Declaration of Rights
• Idea from Robert Rafford, CT State Liaison
• Positive statement for Open Records
• A chance for you to join in and support
• RPAC Booth #105, Sign the Declaration
• Will be used for state and federal issues
• Genealogists need access to Public Records
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Genealogists Declaration of Rights
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Fred Moss, JD, LL.M.
• Counsel for FGS
• RPAC Blogger
• Grandfather of famous author, Evan Moss, who
published his first book at age 7.
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Federal Legislation
• Jan Allen just provided a review of state
legislation and how to contact your state
representatives to protect your access to State
Vital Records
• My presentation will review how to contact your
US Representatives and Senators about access to
Federal records such as the Social Security Death
Index
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Update on SSDI
• Section 203, Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013
• Congress gave Commerce the job of
implementing the certification program
• SSDI is under the National Technical Information
Services of the Dept. of Commerce
• NTIS understands the DMF
• NTIS is the first agency to allow genealogists to
testify
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http://www.ntis.gov/products/ssadmf.aspx
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What is Needed NOW ?
• We need you to deliver a message to your elected
representatives
• Do you know who they are? Do they know you?
• Call on your state and federal legislators
• Office Visits during Congressional Recesses
• August and holidays
• We also recommend joint calls between President
of State Genealogical Society and APG Chapter
President
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US Senate: http://www.senate.gov/
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US House of Representatives:
http://www.house.gov/
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Congressional Schedules
113th Congress, 2nd Session
www.hobnob.com
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Congressional Schedule 2014
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Congressional Schedule 2014
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The 2011 DMF/SSDI Paradigm
• Access to DMF major source of SSNs in fraudulent
tax returns
• SSNs of deceased need same safeguards as living
• Simple fix – Limit access to DMF/SSDI
• Unstated Assumption—Nothing lost by closure
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What Has Changed
• Vulnerability of IRS online refund process
recognized
• IRS Filters in place?
• In December 2011 Genealogical sites began to
mask the SSNs of recently deceased persons
• Treasury IG for Tax Administration Report – Tax
Fraud misusing deceased SSNs < 2%
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Our Message
• Genealogists REALLY concerned about ID Theft
• Serious Crime
• As community, become concerned when
first/only response is to close records
• Section 203, BBA of 2013 only impacts <2%
already addressed by IRS Filters & Genealogical
sites – real impact only on legitimate users
• Better solutions available
• Doesn’t belong in permanent law – sunset?
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Genealogy Not Just a Hobby
• DoD – “No one left behind”
• Unclaimed Persons
• Forensic genealogy – probate, minerals, land . . .
• Tracing heritable medical conditions
• Repatriating stolen art
• Identifying American Indians, Native Alaskans,
and Native Hawaiians for tribal benefits
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Role of RPAC
• Place at the table
• Encourage staff to contact us at [email protected]
• Would like for genealogists (and RPAC) to be
considered as a RESOURCE not as a mere
constituency to be placated (or safely ignored!)
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RPAC Blog Posts
• These slides are posted on the RPAC Blog at
http://www.fgs.org/rpac/publications
• Statements sent to Congressional Committees
and the Department of Commerce about why
genealogists need access to the SSDI
• Copies of letters to state legislators and/or
Governors on the 2011 Model Vital Statistics Act
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Contact RPAC
• Watch the RPAC Blog www.fgs.org/rpac for
updates
• Contact RPAC at [email protected]
• We can help!
• We need to know early and stay informed
throughout the legislative process
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Questions?
http://www.fgs.org/rpac
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