American Legion: Lawsuit Not The Answer in VA Security Breach

11 June 2006

American Legion National Commander Thomas L. Bock today said he is encouraged that Congress and the administration are scrutinizing the lapse in procedure that led to the largest information security breach in the history of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). However, the leader of the world's largest veterans organization added that, "VA must do everything possible to ensure that the personal information of America's veterans, Active Duty, Guard and Reserve personnel is never stored, packaged or transferred in a method that will allow such an enormous loss to result from the lapse in judgment of a single VA employee."

"The loss of more than 26 million veterans records to include spouses, Active Duty, Guard and Reserve members, is an inexcusable betrayal of trust," Bock said. "However, we must now allow the office of the VA Inspector General, the FBI, the Attorney General's office and Congress to resolve this issue while at the same time taking steps to ensure that the 26 million veterans and active servicemembers who are on the stolen list do not suffer further anguish as a result of criminal activity."

While a few veterans' organizations may believe that filing suit against VA will help veterans, Commander Bock urges patience in allowing the existing offices of oversight to complete their analysis of this situation. "The Executive and Legislative branches of our government are working toward a fair and expeditious resolution to this matter. Dragging the Judicial branch into this by filing a lawsuit will only impede the process," added Bock. "It is unlikely that the threat of a lawsuit against the VA would act as a catalyst for the speedier recovery of the lost information. Neither would it expedite the passing of legislation that would compensate veterans for the cost of monitoring and protecting their current credit ratings and personal accounts or for those who may become victims of identity theft."

Bock further stressed the importance of a swift resolution to this issue by avoiding the inevitable delays and unfair rulings that often result from class action suits. "The outcome of the Agent Orange class action settlement should serve as a reminder that judicial oversight isn't always the best remedy," said Bock. "This historic case did not equate to fair compensation for veterans exposed to Agent Orange. Out of about 105,000 claims received, 52,000 totally disabled veterans or their survivors received payments averaging approximately $3,800. This certainly didn't cover the health care for these severely disabled veterans. However, the lawyers who split the $9.2 million granted by Judge Weinstein weren't complaining."

In addition to a fair and expeditious resolution to this breach of security at VA, Bock also called for a complete review of IT security government-wide. "I am sure that VA isn't the only agency within our government that needs to overhaul its IT security protocol. I urge the President to review each agency to ensure that the personal information of all American's is secure."

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This text and a high-resolution photo of Cmdr. Bock can be downloaded at http://www.legion.org.

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