;  (1) that is essential to processing a specific financial transaction that the customer has authorized;

   (2) to a government, regulatory or self-regulatory authority with jurisdiction over the financial institution for examination, compliance or other authorized purposes;

   (3) to a court of competent jurisdiction;

   (4) to a consumer reporting agency for inclusion in a consumer report to be released to a third party for a permissible purpose; or

   (5) that is not personally identifiable.

   (C) Construction.--``Nothing in this section or the rules prescribed under this section shall be construed to amend or alter any provision of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.''

   Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today with Senator SARBANES to introduce the Financial Information Privacy A ct. This important legislation would give customers notice and choice about whether and how their financial institutions share or sell their confidential financial information.

  ;  The right to privacy is among the most cherished of our constitutional rights. But this right has been under assault in a number of areas, including with regard to citizens' financial records, medical records, and prescription drug and retail purchases. This bill is an important first step in protecting consumers' most personal, sensitive financial information: their ba nk account balances, transactions involving their stocks and mutual funds, and payouts on their insurance policies.

   This information has becom e a commodity and is being distributed and sold among businesses all over the world but without the knowledge or consent of the consumers whose very own information is being conveyed. The sharing of their most sensitive, private financial information has becom e increasingly prevalent given two key factors: (1) technological advances which facilitate the collection and retrieval of information; and (2) the formation of new, diversified business affiliations, under which companies can more easily access personal data on each other's customers.

   In this environment, there are dangers of misuse and abuse of confidential financial information. For inst ance, we know of instances where, without customer permission, some banks have provided in-house, affiliate brokers with lists of older customers who have maturing CDs. The brokers then solicited these consumers for risky investments, which they mislead the customer to believe were FDIC-insured.

   The Financial Information Privacy A ct of 19 99 would require banks and securities firms to protect the privacy of their customers' financial records. Customers would be given the opportunity to prevent banks and securities firms from disclosing or selling this information to affili ates. Before banks or securities firms could disclose or sell the information to third parties, they would be required to give notice to the customer and obtain the express written permission of the consumer before making any such disclosure.

   Last September, Senator SARBANES and I proposed legislation similar to the Financial Information Privacy A ct as an amendment to HR 10, the Financial Services Modernization Act. Unfortunately, the amendment was defeated in the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 8-10 along party lines. I was disappointed by this outcome, but am heartened by comments from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who acknowledge financial privacy as an imp ortant issue. I look forward to working with both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee and other interested members on this critical issue. I urge my colleagues to support this proposal. I thank the Chair.

   Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator SARBANES in introducing the Financial Information Privacy A ct of 19 99. Senator SARBANES, along with Senators DODD and BRYAN, have been leaders on the Senate Banking Committee in protecting the privacy of person al financial information.

  ;  Mr. President, the right to privacy is a pers onal and fundamental right protected by the Constitution of the United States. But the American people are growing more and more concerned over encroachments on their personal privacy.

   I seems that everywhere we turn, new technologies, new communications media, and new business services created with the best of intentions and highest of expectations also pose a threat to our ability to keep our lives to ourselves, to live, work and think without having giant corporations looking over our shoulders.

   This incremental encroachment on our privacy has happe ned through the lack of safeguards on personal, financial and medical informati on about eac h of us that can be stolen, sold or mishandled and find its way into the wrong hands with the push of a button.

   Our right of privacy has becom e one of the most vulnerable rights in the information age. The digitalization of information and the e xplosion in the growth of computing and electronic networking offer tremendous potential benefits to the way Americans live, work, conduct commerce, and interact with their government. But the new technology also presents new threats to our individual privacy and secur ity, in particular, our ability to control the terms under which our personal information is acquir ed, disclosed, and used.

   In the financial services industry, for example, conglomerates are offering a wide variety of services, each of which requires a customer to provide financial, medical or other personal information. And noth ing in the law prevents subsidiaries within the conglomerate from sharing this information for uses other than the use the customer thought he or she was providing it for. In fact, under current Federal law, a financial institution can sell, share, or publish savings account balances, certificates of deposit maturity dates and balances, stock and mutual fund purchases and sales, life insurance payouts and health insurance claims.

   Our legislation would protect the privacy of this f inancial information by direct ing the Federal Reserve Board, Office of Thrift Supervision, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to jointly promulgate rules requiring financial institutions they regulate to: (1) inform their customers what information is to be disclosed, and when, to whom and for what purposes the information is to be disclosed; (2) allow customers to review the information for accur acy; and (3) for new customers, obtain the customers' consent to disclosure, and for existing

   customers, give the customers a reasonable opportunity to object to disclosure. These financial institutions could use confidential customer information from othe r entities only if the entities had given their customers similar privacy protectio ns.

   I hope the Financial Information Privacy A ct is ju st the beginning of this new Congress' efforts to address the privacy issues ra ised by ultra competitive marketplaces in the information age.

& nbsp;  For the past three Congresses, I have introduced comprehensive medical privacy l egislati on. I plan to soon introduce the Medical Informati on Privacy a nd Secur ity Act to establish the first comprehensive federal medical privacy l aw. It w ould close the existing gaps in federal privacy laws to e nsure the protection of personally identifiable health information. Medical records c ontain the most intimate, sensitive information about a p erson and must be safeguarded.

   This Congress will also need to consider how our privacy safeguard s for personal, financial and medical informati on measure u p to the tough privacy standards established by the European Union Data Protection Directive, which took effect on October 25, 1998. That could be a big problem for American businesses, since the new rules require EU member countries to prohibit the transmission of personal data to or through any non-EU country that fails to provide adequate data protection as defined under European law.

   European officials have said repeatedly over the past year that the patchwork of privacy laws in t he United States may not meet their standards. Our law is less protective than EU standards in a variety of respects on a range of issues, including requirements to obtain data fairly and lawfully; limitations on the collection of sensitive data; limitations on the purpose of data collection; bans on the collection and storage of unnecessary personal information; requirem ents regarding data accuracy; limitations regarding duration of storage; and centralized supervision of privacy protectio ns and practices.

   The problem is not that Europe protects privacy too much. The problem is

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   The Financial Information Privacy A ct updat es U.S. privacy laws in t he evolving financial services industry. It calls for fundamental protections of the personal, confidential financial information of all Am erican citizens. I urge my colleagues to support it.

   By Mr. WYDEN (for himself and Mr. BURNS):

   S. 188. A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to authorize the use of State revolving loan funds for construction of water conservation and quality improvements; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

   WATER CONSERVATION AND QUALITY INCENTIVES ACT

   Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, twenty-five years after enactment of the Clean Water Act, we still have not achieved the law's original goal that all our nation's lakes, rivers and streams would be safe for fishing and swimming.

   After 25 years, it's time for the next generation of strategies to solve our remaining water quality problems. We need to give States new tools to overcome the new water quality challenges they are now facing.

   The money that has been invested in controlling water pollution from factories and upgrading sewage treatment plants has gone a long way to controlling these urban pollution sources. In most cases, the remaining water quality problems are no longer caused by pollution spewing out of factory pipes. Instead, they are caused by runoff from a myriad of sources ranging from farm fields to city streets and parking lots.

   In my home State of Oregon, more than half of our streams don't fully meet water quality standards. And the largest problems are contamination form runoff and meeting the standards for water temperatures.

   In many cases, conventional approaches will not solve these problems. But we can achieve water temperature standards and obtain other water quality benefits by enhancing stream flows and improving runoff controls.

   A major problem for many streams in Oregon and in many other areas of the Western United States is that water supplies are fully appropriated or over-appropriated. There is currently no extra water to spare for increased stream flows.

   We can't create new water to fill the gap. But we can make more water available for this use through increased water conservation and more efficient use of existing water supplies.

   The key to achieving this would be to create incentives to reduce wasteful water use.

   In the Western United States, irrigated agriculture is the single largest user of water. Studies indicate that substantial quantities of water diverted for irrigation do not make it to the fields, with a significant portion lost to evaporation or leakage fro irrigation canals.

   In Oregon and other States that recognize rights to conserved water for those who conserve it, irrigators and other water users could gain rights to use conserved water while also increasing the amount of water available for other uses by implementing conservation and efficiency measures to reduce water loss.

   The Federal government can play a role in helping meet our nation's changing water needs. In many Western States, supply problems can be addressed by providing financial incentives to help water users implement cost effective water conservation and efficiency measures consistent with State water law.

   And, we can improve water quality throughout the nation by giving greater flexibility to States to use Clean Water Act funds to control polluted runoff, if that's where the money is needed most.

   Today, I am pleased to be joined by my colleague, Senator BURNS, in introducing legislation to authorize the Clean Water State Revolving Fund program to provide loans to water users to fund conservation measures or runoff controls. States would be authorized, but not required, to use their SRF funds for these purposes. Participation by water users, farmers, ranchers and other eligible loan recipients would also be entirely voluntary.

   The conservation program would be structured to allow participating users to receive a share of the water saved through conservation or more efficient use, which they could use in accordance with State law. This type of approach would create a win/win situation with more water available for both the conservers and for instream flows. And, by using the SRF program, the Federal seed money would be repaid over time and gradually become available to fund conservation or other measures to solve water quality problems in other areas.

   My proposal has the support of the Farm Bureau, Oregon water users, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Oregon Water Trust.

   I urge my colleagues to support giving States greater flexibility to use their Clean Water funds for water conservation or runoff control when the State decides that is the best way to solve water quality problems and the water users voluntarily agree to participate.

   Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the RECORD.

   There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

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

   SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Water Conservation and Quality Incentives Act''.

   SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--

    (1) in many parts of the United States, water supplies are insufficient to meet current or expected future demand during certain times of the year;

    (2) a number of factors (including growing populations, increased demands for food and fiber production, and new environmental demands for water) are placing increased demands on existing water supply sources;

    (3) increased water conservation, water quality enhancement, and more efficient use of water supplies could help meet increased demands on water sources;

    (4) in States that recognize rights to conserved water for persons who conserve it, irrigation suppliers, farmers, ranchers, and other users could gain rights to use conserved water while also increasing the quantity of water available for other beneficial uses by implementing measures to reduce water loss during transport to, or application on, the fields;

    (5) reducing the quantity of water lost during transport to the fields and improving water quality can help areas better meet changing population and economic needs; and

    (6) the role of the Federal Government in helping meet those changing water needs should be to provide financial assistance to help irrigators, farmers, and ranchers implement practical, cost-effective water quality and conservation measures.

   SEC. 3. USE OF STATE REVOLVING LOAN FUNDS FOR WATER CONSERVATION IMPROVEMENTS.

    Section 603 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1383) is amended--

    (1) in the first sentence of subsection (c)--

    (A) by striking ``and (3)'' and inserting ``(3)''; and

    (B) by inserting before the period at the end the following: ``, (4) for construction of water conservation improvements by eligible recipients under subsection (i)''; and

    (2) by adding at the end the following:

    ``(i) WATER CONSERVATION IMPROVEMENTS.--

    ``(1) DEFINITION OF ELIGIBLE RECIPIENT.--In this subsection, the term `eligible recipient' means a municipality, quasi-municipality, municipal corporation, special district, conservancy district, irrigation district, water users' association, tribal authority, intermunicipal, interstate, or State agency, nonprofit private organization, a member of such an association, authority, agency, or organization, or a lending institution, located in a State that has enacted laws that--

    ``(A) provide a water user who invests in a water conservation improvement with a right to use water conserved by the improvement, as allowed by State law;

    ``(B) provide authority to reserve minimum flows of streams in the State; and

    ``(C) prohibit transactions that adversely affect existing water rights.

    ``(2) FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.--A State may provide financial assistance from its water pollution control revolving fund to an eligible recipient to construct a water conservation improvement, including--

    ``(A) piping or lining of an irrigation canal;

    ``(B) wastewater and tailwater recovery or recycling;

    ``(C) irrigation scheduling;

    ``(D) water use measurement or metering;

    ``(E) on-field irrigation efficiency improvements; and

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    ``(F) any other improvement that the State determines will provide water conservation benefits.

    ``(3) VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION.--The participation of an eligible recipient in the water conservation improvement shall be voluntary.

    ``(4) USE OF CONSERVED WATER.--The quantity of water conserved through the water conservation improvement shall be allocated in accordance with applicable State law, including any applicable State law requiring a portion of the conserved water to be used for instream flow enhancement or other conservation purposes.

    ``(5) LIMITATION ON USE FOR IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE.--Conserved water made available under paragraph (4) shall not be used to irrigate land that has not previously been irrigated unless the use is authorized by State law and will not diminish water quality.''.

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