Lawmakers demand details on FEMA identity verification contract

Lawmakers still are awaiting a response to questions submitted more than two weeks ago regarding the Federal Emergency Management Agency's selection of a private company to verify identities of disaster assistance applicants.

In a July 11 letter to FEMA Director R. David Paulison obtained by Government Executive Wednesday, House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Subcommittee on Investigations Ranking Member Bob Etheridge, D-N.C., demanded details on the award of a $1.6 million contract to ChoicePoint. They asked FEMA to respond by July 24.

But a committee staffer said that as of Thursday, no response had arrived.

The Democrats urged FEMA to explain whether it solicited bids for the deal, whether ChoicePoint will be able to use the data it collects for commercial purposes and what steps the contractor is using to secure the information it gathers.

The Democrats pointed to a 2005 incident where ChoicePoint sold 145,000 people's information to a con artist posing as a businessman. The letter also cited a report of ChoicePoint mistakenly saying people had criminal records when none existed.

"It appears that ChoicePoint may have had serious problems with determining data accuracy," the lawmakers wrote.

FEMA did not respond to requests for comment on the letter. In response to questions earlier this week, an agency spokesman noted that ChoicePoint already had a deal with the Library of Congress. FEMA's agreement was attached as a "bridge contract."

Matt Furman, a company spokesman, pointed to a Government Accountability Office report that praised the firm's work in helping detect fraud in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Furman said ChoicePoint will be able to catch more fraudulent claims now. Last year, FEMA took disaster assistance applications via phone that turned out to be fraudulent, he said.

"They wanted us to do the Web side and not the phone side," Furman said. But now, ChoicePoint will run identity verifications on both phoned-in applications and Internet submissions.

Privacy watchdog groups are raising red flags over how well protected applicants would be once the company gets their personal information. That data could include checking account numbers for disaster evacuees who opt for direct deposits.

Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, said she would like to see ChoicePoint subject to the same transparency standards as government agencies.

"There's no statutory requirement for ChoicePoint to be as transparent as if it were a government entity," she said.