The message below came from the Association of Professional Genealogists list. Interesting that until now, births, marriages and deaths were prerogatives of the states, not the federal government. Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2004 15:09:02 -0400 From: "Joy Rich" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Access to Birth Certificates/U.S. Congress Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" 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: Joy Rich Brooklyn, NY ----- Original Message ----- From: Joy Rich To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 10:36 AM Subject: Access to Birth Certificates/U.S. Congress This was received by Joy Rich and forwarded to APG: Four or more House committees approved this bill on Friday and presumably more will do so today. A similar bill is quickly being moved through the Senate. It is indeed on the very fast track.) YOUR ACTION IS REQUIRED NOW as U.S. House Resolution 10, which may severely restrict access to birth information, is on the pre-election fast track. (As this is a specifically U.S. legislative issue, action is only requested of U.S. residents. However, it is copied to all IAJGS leaders for your awareness of the issue.) The U.S. Congress is currently considering a bill that may result in significant difficulty for our members in obtaining birth certificates from the various States and localities. You need to contact your representatives, and encourage your members to contact their representatives, recommending specific modifications to the bill. These modifications will not negate the intention of the bill, but will make it less likely that the unintended result will be severe restrictions on obtaining birth certificates for genealogical research. H.R. 10 (House Resolution 10), whose purpose is to respond to the threat of terrorism, is on the fast track to passage. It was introduced on September 24th, will likely get through the various House committees this coming week, and voted upon during the week after. It is being sponsored by a wide array of House leaders, led by the speaker of the House, Mr. Hastart, and will be pushed hard so that it can be signed by the President prior to the election. This bill covers a lot of ground in its 542 pages. However the specific portions that I wish to bring to your intention are its provisions regarding requirements on the States and localities to tighten access to birth certificates. So long as this only focuses on CERTIFIED birth certificates, this should not greatly impact our research. However, the wording is sufficiently broad so that States and localities, in complying with the bill's provisions, may equally restrict both CERTIFIED and NON-CERTIFIED birth certificates, severely impacting genealogical research. The IAJGS has joined with the Genealogical Society of Utah, the FGS and the NGS in our opposition to the bill as it currently stands. I strongly urge you to send a letter to your representative, letting him/her know of your concern with the bill, and recommending changes to address this issue. Given the tight timing, I encourage you to fax or email your representative and Speaker Hastart and to immediately follow this up by mailing handwritten or typewritten letters. The information below may help you in doing this: 1) How do I find out the name and contact information for my representative? Go to http://www.house.gov/ and enter your zip code. Follow the link to your representative's website to obtain his/her contact information. Speaker Hastart's website is http://www.house.gov/hastert/. 2) How can I read any or this entire bill and follow its progress? Go to http://www.house.gov/ and click on "Find a Bill or Law" (or go directly to http://thomas.loc.gov/). Now enter "HR10" for all current information about this bill. 3) How do I locate the section on birth certificates? As above and then click on "CHAPTER 2--IMPROVED SECURITY FOR BIRTH CERTIFICATES." Within this chapter, you will see that SECTION 3063, paragraph (d)(2) directs that access to birth certificates be restricted. 4) Why is this a problem? While it appears that the intention is to tightly control the issuance of certified birth certificates, the wording in the above section does not make the distinction between certified and non-certified certificates. Should the States react by restricting both, this may severely limit our family research. 5) So, what do we want? The IAJGS recommends that clarifying wording be added to make it clear that this provision applies only to certified, and not non-certified birth certificates - nor to very old birth certificates. 6) How should I word my letter? While, you should word the letter in any way that is comfortable for you, we recommend you include the following as a portion of the letter. While I support the intention to increase security to protect the U.S. from terrorists and those who wish to improperly take U.S. identities, I am concerned that those researching their family's history continue to have access to non-certified birth records. Therefore, in order to support HR-10 I ask that you amend HR-10 Section 3063(d)(2) by adding the following wording to the existing paragraph, "However, nothing in this Chapter 2 shall be construed to require a State to change its law with respect to public access to (A) non-certified copies of birth certificates or to (B) birth certificates or birth records once a period of 100 years has elapsed from the date of creation of the certificate or record." I believe that this additional language is imperative so that the states do not react by restricting all certificates to comply with the law, rather than dealing with certified as opposed to non-certified birth certificates. This proposed amendatory language would remind them that they can and should be treated differently. 7) Why is timing urgent? This bill is on the fast track. It is being co-sponsored by much of the House leadership and is being concurrently "marked up" by various committees. It will likely be reported back to the full House this week and voted upon next week. The Senate is expected to follow a similarly expedited timeframe. The goal is clearly to be on record as acting strongly against terrorism and to do this prior to the election so that it might be used in the campaign. 8) How does the IAJGS deal with such things? The IAJGS maintains a Public Records Access Committee, chaired by IAJGS board director, Jan Meisels Allen. This Committee is charged with pursuing issues in which access to public records might be inappropriately limited. Jan further represents the IAJGS on a working group with the FGS and NGS so that we might take properly coordinated actions on issues of common interest. This is one such issue. Again, YOUR ACTION IS REQUIRED NOW as House Resolution 10, which may severely restrict access to birth information, is on the pre-election fast track. Hal Bookbinder, president, IAJGS Carla Tate