I recently discoursed in American Thinker regarding the restrictions imposed by Section 203 of the Bipartisan Budget Act upon the Social Security Administration's Death Master File (DMF). Section 203 marks an effort to prevent fraud by restricting access to the database to individuals having only a legitimate interest. The Department of Commerce's National Technical Information Service (NTIS) has been scrambling to implement the legislation, a flawed statute abruptly foisted upon it by a Congress that failed to consider all of the law's ramifications. From the information thus far gathered (the comment period remains open until 25 April 2014 for the Interim Final Rule published in the Federal Register), it is clear that the Congressionally-mandated embargo cannot help but cripple diverse legitimate and vital uses of the DMF in America's commercial, financial, healthcare, and judicial processes, including but not limited to fraud prevention.  Those who are...(Read Full Post)