July 18, 2006
Media contact: Jeff Schrade (202)224-9093

(Washington, DC) Members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs will meet Thursday to review the Office of the Inspector General's Report on the loss and recovery of the laptop computer and external hard drive containing the personal information of millions of veterans and active duty personnel, and VA's plan for implementing the OIG's recommendations to ensure greater data security at VA.

The hearing is a follow-up on the Committee's May 25, 2006, hearing on the data theft.

On May 3, 2006, the home of a VA employee was burglarized and computer material containing the records of 26.5 million veterans and active duty personnel was stolen. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson was not informed of the incident until May 16 and a public announcement by VA did not occur until May 22, 2006, almost three weeks after the burglary occurred.

The FBI has a high degree of confidence ? based on the result of forensic tests and other information gather during the investigation ? that the sensitive data was not accessed or compromised.

• The hearing titled "VA Data Privacy Breach: Twenty-Six Million People Deserve Assurance of Future Security," will be held Thursday, July 20, in room 418 of the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC. It will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern.
• It will be webcast live, and archived for viewing later, at http://veterans.senate.gov. The hearing may also be audiocast ? during the hearing only ? on C-SPAN's hearings website, located at http://www.capitolhearings.org.

Witnesses

• The Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs

Accompanied by:

The Honorable Tim McClain, General Counsel, Department of Veterans Affairs

Robert Howard, Supervisor, Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and Chief Information Officers, Department of Veterans Affairs

• The Honorable George Opfer, Inspector General, Department of Veterans Affairs

  Accompanied by

  Jon A. Wooditch, Deputy Inspector General, Department of Veterans Affairs

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