Fingerprint Registry Snuck Into Housing Bill

[Robbien]

http://www.colfaxrecord.com/detail/85073.html

Fingerprints are considered to be among the most personal of information, and fingerprint databases created and proposed in the name of national security have generated much debate.

. . .

Yet earlier this week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The legislation would require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries — and not suspected of anything — to send their prints to the feds. The database and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 19-2.

The measure the committee passed states that “an indvidual may not engage in the business of a loan originator without first … obtaining a unique identifier.” To obtain this “identifier,” an individual is requiredto “furnish” to the newly created Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry “information concerning the applicant’s identity, including fingerprints for submission” to the FBI and other government agencies.

The fingerprint provisions are contained in a “manager’s amendment” that was hammered out by committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn, and Ranking Member Richard Shelby, R-Ala., on Monday and attached the next day to a broader housing bailout bill that had been scheduled for a comittee vote. That bill, the “Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008,” expands the lending authority of the Federal Housing Administration and the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance the mortgages of troubled borrowers and banks.

[indepat]

1. Auchtung, mein fuhrer

[peacetalksforall]

2. Man, isn't it too late? Why do our leaders act like jerks? To cover up

their neglect? Were they uninformed? No one sent them any hints of what was going on? They didn't listen to the news? Now, they want fingerprints - kinda retroactively? Why am I not saying it's about time? Soon they we will find out that those airport see-through photographs are in our Poindexter database record.

[williesgirl]

3. When will the assault on our rights/freedoms end? Now Dems doing it too? This has to be stopped.

rec'd

[Robbien]

5. The article states that many States are putting fingerprint requirements

into its laws and that banking institutions are also implementing such procedures.

Meanwhile on the security front, many people are warning about the fact that these fingerprint files are not secure. They can easily be stolen and be used in identity theft attempts.

Our political/financial systems are broken.

[DAGDA56]

4. Speaking of fingerprints, is there any way to tell whose "fingerprints" are

actually on this measure? You mention Dodd and Shelby, but was it really their idea? I guess I'm asking for accountability from elected officials...

[Robbien]

6. Chris Dodd is big on getting fingerprints

He was also involved in the Missing Child bill which encouraged parents to give authorities their children's DNA and fingerprints just in case their children go missing.

Dodd was chair of the working committee on this mortgage bill.