I 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2695 

To amend the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to protect the personally identifying information of victims of domestic violence, dating 

violence, sexual assault, and stalking. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 26, 2005 

Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin (for herself and Ms. HARRIS) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL 

To amend the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to 

protect the personally identifying information of victims 

of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and 

stalking. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safe Housing Identity 

5 Exception for the Lives of Domestic Violence Victims Act’’ 

6 or the ‘‘SHIELD Act’’. 
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1 SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO THE MCKINNEY-VENTO HOMELESS 

2 ASSISTANCE ACT. 

3 Section 423(a) of the McKinney-Vento Homeless As4 sistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11383(a)) is amended by adding 

5 at the end the following: 

6 ‘‘(8) CONFIDENTIALITY.— 

7 ‘‘(A) HOUSING ASSISTANCE GRANTS AND

8 PROGRAMS.—In the course of awarding grants 

9 or implementing programs under this sub10 section, the Secretary shall instruct any recipi11 ent or subgrantee not to disclose to any person, 

12 agency, or entity any personally identifying in13 formation about any client if the Secretary, re14 cipient, or subgrantee believes, based upon rea15 sonable evidence, that the client is— 

16 ‘‘(i) a victim of domestic violence, dat17 ing violence, sexual assault, or stalking; 

18 ‘‘(ii) the parent or guardian of a 

19 minor victim of domestic violence, dating 

20 violence, sexual assault, or stalking; or 

21 ‘‘(iii) the dependent or minor child of 

22 a victim of domestic violence, dating vio23 lence, sexual assault, or stalking. 

24 ‘‘(B) OTHER FEDERAL AND STATE PRO25 GRAMS.—The Secretary shall not require or ask 

26 a recipient or subgrantee of any other Federal 
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1 or State program to disclose personally identi2 fying information about any clients if the per3 sons, agencies, or entities implementing those 

4 programs believe, based upon reasonable evi5 dence, that those clients are— 

6 ‘‘(i) victims of domestic violence, dat7 ing violence, sexual assault, or stalking; 

8 ‘‘(ii) the parents or guardians of 

9 minor victims of domestic violence, dating 

10 violence, sexual assault, or stalking; or 

11 ‘‘(iii) the dependents or minor chil12 dren of victims of domestic violence, dating 

13 violence, sexual assault, or stalking. 

14 ‘‘(C) HOMELESS MANAGEMENT INFORMA15 TION SYSTEMS.—The Secretary shall instruct 

16 any recipient or subgrantee under this sub17 section or any recipient or subgrantee of any 

18 other Federal or State program participating in 

19 any homeless management information system 

20 funded in whole or in part under this subsection 

21 that personally identifying information about 

22 any client may only be submitted to a homeless 

23 management information system if the program 

24 seeking to disclose such information has ob25 tained informed, reasonably time-limited, writ-
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1 ten consent from the client to whom the infor2 mation relates. The Secretary may require or 

3 ask any recipient or subgrantee to share non4 personally identifying data in the aggregate re5 garding services to clients and nonpersonally 

6 identifying demographic information in order to 

7 comply with the data collection requirements of 

8 homeless management information systems. 

9 ‘‘(D) DEFINITION.—As used in this para10 graph, the term personally identifying informa11 tion means information from or about an indi12 vidual that could be used to identify such indi13 vidual, including— 

14 ‘‘(i) first and last name; 

15 ‘‘(ii) a home or other physical address, 

16 including street name, name of city or 

17 town, and ZIP code; 

18 ‘‘(iii) an email address or other online 

19 contact information, such as an instant 

20 messaging user identifier or a screen name 

21 that reveals an individual’s email address; 

22 ‘‘(iv) a telephone number; 

23 ‘‘(v) a social security number; 

24 ‘‘(vi) an Internet Protocol address or 

25 host name that identifies an individual; 
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1 ‘‘(vii) a persistent identifier, such as a 

2 customer number held in a ‘cookie’ or 

3 processor serial number, that is combined 

4 with other available data that identifies an 

5 individual; and 

6 ‘‘(viii) any other information, includ7 ing grade point average, date of birth, aca8 demic or occupational interests, athletic or 

9 extracurricular interests, racial or ethnic 

10 background, or religious affiliation, that, in 

11 combination with any of the above, would 

12 serve to identify any individual.’’. 

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