During a marathon session of budget votes that started at lunchtime on Thursday and wrapped up in the early hours of Friday morning – a “vote-a-rama” – the Senate approved two proposals from Sen. Warner: one improves federal government efficiency, and the second strengthens consumer protections following data breaches that expose customers’ personal information.

Recently we have seen major data breaches that have affected hundreds of millions of American consumers – those who have shopped at Target and Home Depot, who have accounts at JPMorgan Chase, or have received healthcare services through Anthem.  In the aftermath of the Target breach, Sen. Warner and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) recommended that various industry groups in the private sector cooperate on information sharing to ward off data thieves.

With continuous advances in technology, it’s vitally important that we continue to strengthen our efforts to protect consumers from cybercrime by enacting smart, targeted protections. Sen. Warner’s bipartisan amendment recognizes that we need to provide reasonable notification to consumers when their personal information is compromised, and encourage greater cooperation and enhanced data security programs in the private sector to safeguard that data.

Additionally, the Senate approved an amendment Sen. Warner introduced with Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) pushing Congress to act on recommendations from the General Accounting Office to improve federal government efficiency by reducing fragmentation, overlap, and duplication.

Also during the vote-a-rama, the Senate approved an amendment introduced by Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) and Sen. Warner to increase the sharing of cybersecurity threat information, as well as an amendment Sen. Warner co-sponsored that urges the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to allow children who have been legally adopted by Americans to join their families in the U.S.

As a member of the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Warner earlier amended the budget to require the IRS to notify taxpayers if they have been the victim of identity theft, and successfully sponsored an amendment to encourage the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand a veterans law clinic model developed at William & Mary.