> The Record Preservation and Access Committee (RPAC) needs your help on > House Bill 10. As you may know, HB10 seeks to limit access to vital > records in order to protect each of us from identity theft. The way the > bill is worded, it could also limit, however, our access to this > information for genealogical purposes. The RPAC is recommending that the > wording in the bill be adjusted to: > > Insert the following language as a new subsection 890A(b)(2)(E) of the > Homeland Security Act of 2002 (see Title 6, Section 606(a) of S.2774): > "shall not require a State to change its law or practice with respect to > public access to (i) non-certified copies of birth certificates or to (ii) > birth certificates or birth records once a period of 100 years has elapsed > from the date of creation of the certificate or record." > > The combined Senate and House committee is meeting to adjust the language > of the bill and the committee members need to hear from the genealogical > community. It is particularly helpful if you live in one of the states > represented by the committee members. If not, contacting someone you know > in that state to make their opinion known would be the next most helpful > thing you could do. If you do not live in any of these states and do not > know anyone whom you could contact, then you should probably not take an > action at this time other than to write to your representatives. > > You can get the address of the various representatives at: > http://www.house.gov/ and the senators at http://www.senate.gov/ > > > These are the members of the Conference Committee: > > Senate: > > Collins (ME) > Lieberman (CT) > Lautenberg (NJ) > Levin (MI) > Lott (MS) > DeWine (OH) > Roberts (KS) > Rockefeller (WVA) > Durbin (IL) > Graham (FL) > Sununu (NH) > Voinovich (OH) > Coleman (MN) > > House: > Hoekstra (MI) > Dreier (CA) > Hyde (IL) > Hunter (CA) > Sensenbrenner (WI) > Harmon (CA) > Skelton (MO) > Menendez (NJ) > Thank you for your support and interest. > > Respectfully, > David E. Rencher > Chair, Record Preservation and Access Committee > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > > Published by: The Federation of Genealogical Societies > Business Office: P. O. Box 200940, Austin, TX 78720-0940 > Toll-Free Phone: 1-888-FGS-1500 > Toll-Free Fax: 1-888-380-0500 > E-mail: fgs-office@fgs.org > Web Page: http://www.fgs.org Here is a direct link to information about the bill. The colon at the end of the URL is part of the URL. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:h.r.00010: Barbara Leak, President Genealogical & Historical Council of Sacramento Valley