When I submitted my comments to the old JewishGen discussion groups regarding the 2 February 2012 House Ways & Means Committee hearing on the Social Security Death Master File (specifically, the Agin testimony), one SIG administrator rejected my comment as irrelevant.  Fortunately, Jan Meisels Allen was a subscriber on one SIG discussion group where the posting went through.

As a result of that W&M hearing, significant embargoes were placed on the Death Master File (known commercially as the Social Security Death Index); some intense lobbying, including a lobbying entourage on Capitol Hill in which I participated, succeeded in controlling the worst of the damage (the initial legislation would have totally padlocked the DMF/SSDI).

I trust that we in the genealogy community have learned our lesson.

Here is one that may well pop up in some future form:

https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/after-lawyer-with-grudge-kills-her-son-federal-judge-calls-for-privacy-protections

-- Ken Ryesky

Petach Tikva, ISRAEL