Congress held a number of hearings on a variety of issues this past week that impacts peoples' health and safety. They include a hearing on global autism, nuclear waste storage, data security breaches and identity theft.
- The impact of mental illness on children living in the developing world, in particular Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), was the subject of Tuesday’s hearing titled "Global Perspectives on Autism - A Growing Public Health Crisis." Witnesses included representatives from national and international health organizations, including Autism Speaks, Autism Society, Autism Community of Africa and Eden Autism Services.
- Wednesday, a House Energy Subcommittee held a hearing on the federal management of civilian nuclear waste and the Energy Department’s decision to end the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository program.
The Energy and Commerce Committee recently released a report compiled by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that cites politics as the basis for attempting to terminate the project, not technical or safety issues.
Witnesses at the hearing included Members of Congress who support and oppose the Yucca Mountain site, as well as officials from the GAO, the Energy Department and the state of Nevada. Representative John Shimkus (R-IL) chaired the subcommittee.
- In late April, Sony’s PlayStation Network announced 77 million users’ data had been breached. In response, the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Chairwoman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) held another hearing Thursday on the threat of data theft to American consumers.
Tim Schaaff, Sony Network Entertainment International president, testified about Sony's handling of the hacker attacks.
The Committee is discussing the creation of a federal data breach notification bill. The law would be designed to protect customers' personal information when it is lost or stolen.
- On Thursday, an oversight panel in the House of Representatives held a hearing on identity theft. At the hearing, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman apologized to “frustrated” taxpayers that have been victims of identity theft by the IRS. The IRS had recently discovered over 400 thousand incidents of identity theft since 2008. In many of these cases, thieves used the IRS E-File program to steal a taxpayer's income tax refund.
Other witnesses at the hearing included victims of identity theft as well as an official from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which issued a report last month on these identity theft problems. Representative Todd Platts (R-PA) chaired this hearing.