Pro-Consumer Stirrings in Congress

Recently, Congress has been making some pro-consumer noises on the subject of privacy and information security. According to this article from C|NET, a bill has been introduced in the Senate which would "let victims of identity theft seek restitution for money and time they spent repairing their credit history." My thought is that the bill (assuming it passes, which isn't a sure thing) won't have much practical effect. The law already allows identity theft victims to obtain restitution (and more) from identity thieves and I don't see that federalizing remedies will make much difference. However, the fact that Congress even sees the need to grandstand on this issue is a heartening sign to privacy advocates, since generally concerns about information security and data privacy are, at best, used as stalking horses for things people really care about.